03 — ARTWORK
Quaratesi Polyptych: Virgin and Child
- MEDIUM
- Egg tempera on poplar, 140 x 83 cm
- TYPE
- Religious
PALETTE
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CURRENT LOCATION · National Gallery
- FILE
- 670 × 1562 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
The central panelTerm in painting for a support of wood, metal, or other rigid substance, as distinct from canvas. Until the adoption of canvas in the 15th century nearly all the movable paintings of Europe were executed on wood, and even up to the beginning of the 17th century it is probable that as much painting was done on the one support as on the other. Painters who worked on a small scale often used copper panels (Elsheimer is a leading example), and in the colonial art of South America copper and tin and even lead and zinc were used. On a larger scale, slate has occasionally been used as a support, notably by Rubens for his altarpiece for Sta Maria in Vallicella (the Chiesa Nuova) in Rome; the picture he originally painted was said to reflect the light unpleasantly and slate was used for the replacement to produce a more matt finish. For wood panels the Italian masters of the Renaissance preferred white poplar, while oak was the most common wood used in northern Europe. Many other types were used, however; analysis of the contents of art galleries has yielded a long list, including beech, cedar, chestnut, fir, larch, linden, mahogany, olive, and walnut. In the 20th century cedar, teak, and dark walnut are favourites, and modern painters have also used plywood, fibre-board, and other synthetic materials as supports. of the Quaratesi altarpieceA picture or sculpture that stands on or is set up behind an altar. The term reredos is used for an ornamental screen or partition, not directly attached to the altar table but affixed to the wall behind it. A diptych is an altarpiece consisting of two panels, a triptych one of three panels, and a polyptych one of four or more panels. From the 14th to 16th century, the altarpiece was one of the most important commissions in European art; it was through the altarpiece that some of the most decisive developments in painting and sculpture came about. shows the Virgin and Child. This panel is flanked by four saints each on a separate gabled panel (now in the Uffizi, Florence). Christ with his foreshortened halo leans out of the little roundel in the gablethe end wall of a pitched roof or similar architectural form, usually triangular but sometimes stepped or arched. A gable may be used purely decoratively, as, for example, over the portal of a Gothic cathedral, where it often contains sculptural decoration. above the Virgin. All elements were further harmonised through subtle adjustments of composition and colour. Gentile's sumptuous decorative effects can now best be appreciated in the gold brocade, for the once-brilliant cloth of honoura cloth of valuable material held up behind a distinguished person to set them apart visually from others (a custom deriving from classical antiquity). behind the Virgin and Child, painted translucent red over silver leaf and green over gold, has darkened and blotched with age.
Despite its regal magnificence, the central group retains a graceful intimacy. The Virgin, an ideal beauty of her day with fair hair, broad forehead and rosebud mouth, looks out gravely as the Christ Child smiles contentedly, showing his tiny milk teeth. Keeping firm hold of his mother's cloak, he turns from her to the adoring angel, with a daisy - symbol of his innocence, picked in Heaven, the garden of eternal spring - held daintily between his pudgy finger and thumb.
OTHER WORKS BY GENTILE DA FABRIANO
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-re7cec20bbc6483,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Quaratesi Polyptych: Virgin and Child by GENTILE DA FABRIANO},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/gentile-da-fabriano-r4f35b93f22ffac/quaratesi-polyptych-virgin-and-child-re7cec20bbc6483},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.