Madonna and Child

Dated to 1413, this tempera panel by Lorenzo Monaco was recorded in the Masson collection in Amiens by 1904. By November 1927, the work had entered the Paris collection of Édouard Larcade. Ownership subsequently passed to Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi in Florence, a tenure confirmed by expert appraisals from Giuseppe Fiocco and Wilhelm Suida in May 1938.

On September 1, 1939, Contini Bonacossi sold the painting to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in New York; the bill of sale noted its previous locations in Amiens and Saint-Germain. The foundation donated the work to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1943, where it remains part of the Samuel H. Kress Collection.

The work has remained in the Gallery’s holdings since the 1943 donation, where it is catalogued as a tempera panel painted by Lorenzo Monaco in 1413.

Lorenzo Monaco's painting, "Madonna and Child," created in 1413, exemplifies early 15th-century Florentine religious art. Executed in tempera on panel, it portrays the Virgin Mary cradling the Christ Child. This work showcases the period's evolving artistic approaches to sacred imagery, blending traditional devotional elements with emerging techniques for depicting form and light.

Created in Florence during the early 15th century, this work reflects a transitional moment in art history. Artists of this era were exploring new ways to convey spatial depth and volume, moving beyond the extensive use of gold leaf that characterized earlier periods. Lorenzo Monaco's painting contributes to this evolving understanding of pictorial space and naturalistic representation.

Lorenzo Monaco's depiction of the Madonna and Child stands as an example of how this enduring religious theme was interpreted in early Renaissance Florence. Comparing this work with similar compositions by contemporaries such as Fra Angelico reveals the diverse stylistic approaches artists took to portray the Virgin and Christ, highlighting individual artistic voices within a shared devotional tradition.