Simone Martini - Virgin and Child over Saints, about 1325

Simone Martini (Siena, about 1284 - 1344, Avignon)

Virgin and Child over Saints Helen, Paul, Dominic, Stephen (?), and a Dominican Nun, about 1325

Tempera and tooled gold on panel, 33.4 x 25.4 x 4.4 cm (13 1/8 x 10 x 1 3/4 in.) with engaged frame

Commentary

Set back to back against the Giotto, and in front of another chair, is Simone Martini's Virgin and Child, from about 1325.  Like the work by Giotto, it shows the bond shared by the child and his doting mother, who leans over to him, in a tacit acknowledgement of his divine status.  A small band of saintly figures appears in the lower register of the panel; on the far right side of this band is the diminutive figure of a female donor, clad in a nun's black habit.  She is kneeling in prayer, asking viewers to remember her in prayer; at the same time, she is demonstrating her position as the person responsible for commissioning this painting. By placing her own portrait so close to this one, and in a corner of the room full of other divine figures, was Gardner somehow imitating the medieval donor, encouraging us to remember her admiringly and to keep her in our prayers?