Follower of Pietro Perugino, The Virgin and Child with Saints

The Virgin Mary and Christ Child are seated on a wooden throne with steps, raising them above the other figures. To their right is Saint Dominic, who founded the Dominican Order in the twelfth century; on the other side is Saint Catherine of Siena, who was also a member of the Dominicans in the fourteenth century. Both hold lilies, the symbol of Saint Dominic, and wear the black-and-white Dominican habit (uniform). The kneeling figures in front of Saint Catherine are the donors – the people who commissioned the picture.

The artist who made this work painted in the style of the fifteenth-century Umbrian painter Pietro Perugino; he was probably working in the following century, rather than as a member of Perugino’s workshop. His figures lack a sense of three-dimensionality, but he has attempted to imitate the renowned ’sweetness' of Perugino’s figures which, like these, have softly rounded faces with delicate features.