The Madonna and Child

Niccolò di Tommaso is first documented in Florence in 1346, when he is named as a member of the Arte dei medici e speziali, the guild to which painters at the time belonged. He was very probably a pupil and collaborator of Nardo di Cione, whose influence is evident in his early career and with whom he may have worked on the frescos of the Cappella Strozzi in Santa Maria Novella. He travelled to Naples in 1371, making a triptych for the church of Sant’Antonio Abate in Foria (Naples, Museo di Capodimonte), a work thought to have been commissioned by Joanna I of Naples. Shortly after he executed the fresco cycle for the Convento del Tau in Pistoia, regarded as the masterpiece of his maturity. His corpus was reconstructed in great part by Richard Ofner, and subsequently expanded by Miklòs Boskovits; over 50 pictures are now attributed to the artist, making him one of the most productive and significant artists in the third quarter of the trecento. This panel presents similarities, in the individualised facial features of the figures, to the Madonna and Child in Národní galerie v Praze, Prague and to the Madonna and Child with Saints, in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona.