Copy after the painting Virgin and Child with St John and St Francis by Pietro Lorenzetti ??? in the Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi

Kaiser employed watercolour to replicate the fresco’s flat, gold-ground background and stylized figures. He used thin, transparent layers to suggest the richness of the Virgin’s blue cloak with gold trim and the Child’s red sash, while maintaining the original’s lack of perspective. The figures are rendered with restrained detail, their forms outlined clearly against the luminous ground, mirroring the medieval aesthetic of symbolic rather than naturalistic representation.

The watercolour was commissioned by the Arundel Society, a 19th-century British organization dedicated to preserving and disseminating images of historic art. Kaiser’s copy was made directly from the fresco in Assisi and later published as part of a series aimed at scholars and collectors. Its inscription, 'EDUARD KAISER cop.', confirms the artist’s role and the work’s function as a documentary reproduction rather than an original composition.

In the 1870s, European institutions increasingly sought to document medieval art before it deteriorated or was altered. The Arundel Society’s publications responded to this urgency, offering accessible reproductions of frescoes and altarpieces. Kaiser’s watercolour reflects this scholarly impulse, aligning with broader Victorian interests in medievalism and the preservation of religious art across national boundaries.

Kaiser’s copy remains a valuable record of Lorenzetti’s fresco as it appeared in the late 19th century, before potential conservation interventions. It illustrates how 19th-century artists engaged with medieval sources, not as imitators but as careful transcribers. The work contributes to the historical understanding of how medieval imagery was received and transmitted in the modern era through reproductive media.