Artwork
Processional Banner
Processional Banner is an unspecified painting by the Italo Byzantine artist Spinello Aretino. It dates from 1399 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The Processional Banner depicts a religious scene associated with a saintly figure, likely referencing the patron saint of the confraternity that commissioned it. Spinello Aretino's 1399 work, housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, employs traditional iconography to convey devotional meaning, reflecting the spiritual and communal functions of processional banners in late medieval religious practice.
The banner's subject and symbolic elements underscore its role in liturgical processions, serving both as a visual narrative and an emblem of religious devotion within the confraternity's rituals.
Technique & Style
The Processional Banner is executed in tempera on wood panel, a technique typical of late 14th-century Italian religious painting. The work is attributed to Spinello Aretino and was created in 1399, reflecting the stylistic conventions of late Gothic devotional imagery. Its composition is rendered with delicate color modulation and fine linear detail characteristic of the Tuscan school.
History & Provenance
The Processional Banner is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where it is catalogued as accession 32.130.1. No exhibition history is documented in the available sources.
Overview
Created in 1399 by the Florentine painter Spinello Aretino, this religious work, titled Processional Banner, is an oil painting that now belongs to the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The composition centers on a solemn female figure seated on a throne-like platform, surrounded by a host of angels, some of whom play musical instruments, against a warm golden backdrop.
Artist & collection
Artist
Spinello Aretino was an Italian painter from Arezzo, who was active in Tuscany at the end of the 14th and the first decade of the 15th century. His style influenced the development of late 14th- and early 15th-century painting in Tuscany.
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Madonna del Parto
Virgin and Child with Angels
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels, Saints and Donors
Virgin and Child Enthroned with Four Angels
Processional Cross