# Madonna and Child with Sts Anthony Abbott and Bernardino of Siena [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [SANO di Pietro]() - Date: 1401-1450 - Technique: Oil on gold ground panel, 60 x 44 cm ## Commentary Madonna and Child with Sts Anthony Abbott and Bernardino of Siena c. 1450 Oil on gold ground panel, 60 x 44 cm Private collection Around 1450, the year in which St Bernardino was canonized Sano di Pietro was commissioned to paint numerous images of the patron saint of Siena. These historical events explain the large number of small devotional panels depicting the Madonna and Child flanked by St Bernardino and usually one other saint, of which the present panel is a fine example. The sunken cheeks of St Bernardino and the physiognomic resemblance among the various representations of the saint, are explained by the fact that Sano di Pietro apparently used a wax mask, taken of the saint's head at the moment of his death, to ensure an accurate likeness \(a cast of the mask was at one time preserved at the museum of Aquila\). ## Related artworks - [Angel of the Annunciation]() - [Assumption of the Virgin \(detail\)]() - [Assumption of the Virgin \(detail\)]() - [Assumption of the Virgin]() - [Beheading of St John the Baptist]() - [Birth of the Virgin]() - [Donna Perna Being Cured on Approaching St Bernardino's Body]() - [Flight to Egypt]() - [Madonna of Humility]() - [Marriage of the Virgin]() - [Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple]() - [Return of the Virgin \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()