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Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints Peter, Paul and George (?), Four Angels, and a Donor
about 1446–49
Fra Angelico, Italian (Florentine), about 1395/1400–1455
24.9 x 24.8 cm (9 13/16 x 9 3/4 in.)
Tempera on panel
On view in the: William A. Coolidge Gallery (Southern European Art 1400–1600)
Although the Virgin Mary, seated on a throne, occupies the center of this composition, the gazes of several of the figures are drawn toward the kneeling figure in clerical dress at lower left. This figure, whom Saint Peter presents to the Christ Child, is the donor, who commissioned the painting. The work was originally two-sided, with a head of Christ on the reverse, but its original function remains a mystery since it is much smaller than the trays presented as gifts to new mothers in fifteenth-century Florence.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Gift of Mrs. Walter Scott Fitz, 1914
Accession number: 14.416
Provenance/Ownership History: Please note: The history of ownership is not definitive or comprehensive, as it is under constant review and revision by MFA curators and researchers.
By 1869, Henri-Joseph-Francois, Baron de Triqueti (b.1804-d.1874); 1874, by descent to his daughter, Madame Lee Childe, Baronness de Triqueti, Paris; May 4, 1886, Madame Lee Childe sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, lot 1, sold to Edouard Aynard (?) (b.1837-d.1913), Lyon, France; December 1-4, 1913, Edouard Aynard sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, lot 35, sold to Kleinberger Galleries, New York and Paris; by 1914, sold by Kleinberger Galleries to Mrs. Walter Scott Fitz (Henrietta Goddard Wigglesworth) (b.1847 - d.1929), Boston, MA; 1914, gift of Mrs. W. Scott Fitz to the MFA. (Accession Date: April 2, 1914)