Madonna and Child with Two Saints (Bicci)

Executed in tempera on wood and enriched with extensive gold leaf, the altarpiece combines the flat, luminous surfaces typical of early Renaissance devotional images with a decorative lower predella. The figures are outlined with fine brushwork, and the rich color palette—crimson, gold, and deep blues—enhances the sacred atmosphere.

The panel was originally intended as an altarpiece, likely commissioned by private patrons whose coats of arms appear on the predella’s borders. After changing hands over the centuries, the painting entered the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts as part of John W. Tempest’s 1892 donation, where it remains on view in the Jean‑Noël Desmarais pavilion.

Neri di Bicci worked within the Florentine workshop tradition, producing works that blended devotional iconography with the emerging naturalism of the Quattrocento. This piece exemplifies the sacra conversazione format, where holy figures share a unified space, influencing later Renaissance altarpieces that sought to create intimate, narrative-driven devotional scenes.