The Madonna and Child with angels

This panel, a private devotional work, reflects Bartolomeo Caporali’s early engagement with the refined Gothic tradition shaped by local adaptations of Florentine painting, particularly that of Benozzo Gozzoli. The elongated hands and elegantly tooled gold ground closely parallel the arcing folds and wheel-spoke haloes of Caporali’s triptych for the Confraternity of Justice (Perugia, Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, inv. no. 230), while the delicately modeled features echo those in his Virgin and Child with Two Angels (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, inv. no. 137A).

Particularly striking is this painting's finely punched, brocade-like background, its swirling vegetal motifs recalling the luminous surfaces of the artist’s Virgin and Child Surrounded by Four Angels (Florence, Museo di San Marco, inv. 1890: no. 3250) and his Adoration of the Magi with a Crucifix (London, National Gallery, inv. no. 1843). Likely datable to circa 1450, this panel predates Caporali’s documented collaboration with Benedetto Bonfigli, underscoring its importance as an early example of the painter’s transition from Gothic elegance toward the more naturalistic style that would characterize Umbrian art in the latter half of the fifteenth century.