Artwork
The Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple
The Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple is a tempera painting by the Italo Byzantine artist Niccolò di Buonaccorso. It is held in the collection of the Uffizi Gallery.
About this work
Overview
Niccolò di Buonaccorso, an active Sienese painter of the late fourteenth century, completed the tempera panel The Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple in 1390. The work, now part of the Uffizi Gallery collection, exemplifies the Italo‑Byzantine visual language that prevailed in Siena during this period.
Subject & Meaning
The composition illustrates the biblical episode in which the infant Mary is brought before the temple rites. She stands on a stepped platform, clothed in a dark, flowing robe, while a priest officiates before her. A group of women, rendered in vivid reds, blues and yellows, surround the scene, emphasizing communal devotion and the sanctity of the rite.
Technique & Style
Executed in tempera, the painting displays Buonaccorso’s refined miniaturist hand, marked by precise line work and intricate decorative patterns. The background is suffused with a warm golden hue, a hallmark of the Italo‑Byzantine palette, while the figures retain a stylized, frontal presentation typical of the era’s religious art.
History & Provenance
Created in Siena, the panel entered the Uffizi’s holdings through the museum’s early acquisitions of Sienese works. Buonaccorso, besides his artistic activity, briefly participated in local civic affairs, a fact that underscores his prominence within the city’s cultural and political circles.
Context
The work reflects the devotional climate of late‑fourteenth‑century Siena, where Marian veneration was central to both liturgical practice and civic identity. Its formal qualities align with contemporary Sienese panels, linking it to a broader tradition of narrative tempera painting that combined Byzantine iconography with emerging local sensibilities.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Niccolò di Buonaccorso, also Niccolò di Niccolò di Buonaccorso or Bonaccorso, (active 1355 – 1388) was an Italian painter and one of the most prominent Sienese painters of the 14th century.
Saint Reparata before the Emperor Decius
Presentation of Jesus at the Temple
The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena
Saint Catherine Disputing and Two Donors
Madonna and Child Enthroned and Twelve Angels
The Coronation of the Virgin, and Saints
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Four Saints
The Annunciation to Zacharias; (verso) The Angel of the Annunciation
Triptych: Madonna with Saints and Christ Blessing (Center); The Nativity and the Annunciate Angel (Left Wing); Crucifixion and the Virgin Annunciate (Right Wing)
Copy after St Stephen preaching and St Stephen before the Council, Fra Angelico in the Niccoline Chapel (Vatican, Rome)