3-002-806 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Virgin and Child with Saints, c1475-1480. At the centre of this multi-paneled altarpiece, the enthroned Virgin Mary, surrounded by angels, holds the Christ Child on her knee, allowing him to be worshipped by a kneeling monk, surely the individual who commissioned the painting. To the left of the central panel is the bishop saint Nicholas of Bari while to the right is Saint Galganus. Rarely depicted, Galganus is shown thrusting his sword into the rock on Mount Siepi (near Siena in Central Italy), where the Archangel Michael instructed him to build his hermitage. Flanking the side panels in the frame of the altarpiece are additional saints: at the left are Saints Dominic (above) and Bartholomew (below); at the right are Saints Francis of Assisi (above) and John the Baptist (below). The uppermost panels depict Christ as the blessing savior between the Archangel Gabriel (at the left) and the Virgin of the Annunciation (at the right).