Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009691About the Artwork
Seated on an elaborate throne, the Madonna’s weighty majesty emphasizes her role as the Queen of Heaven as she gazes at her infant son. The child, in turn, stares at the viewer. To Christ’s right is a fluttering goldfinch, a bird that was believed to nest in thorny trees and, according to legend, removed a painful spine from Christ’s crown of thorns. At that moment, a drop of his blood fell onto the goldfinch, forever giving it red markings. The precise identity of this artist has not yet been discovered, and little is known about his training or career. He receives his name after an altarpiece in the church of San Lucchese in Poggibonsi, near Siena.
Provenance
A. Artaud de Montor, Paris (1808, c. 1845); Challamel family, Paris; (Paris sale 1967); (Wildenstein)
Exhibition history
Year in Review for 1968. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 29-March 9, 1969). Florence and the Arts: Five Centuries of Patronage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 13-September 19, 1971).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Master of San Lucchese (Italian, c. 1335–1380)
- Date
- c. 1350
- Medium
- tempera and gold on poplar panel
- Dimensions
- Framed: 122.5 x 61 x 7.5 cm (48 1/4 x 24 x 2 15/16 in.); Unframed: 113.7 x 54 cm (44 3/4 x 21 1/4 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Medieval Art
- Credit line
- Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
- Accession no.
- 1968.206
Open-access museum record · AT-00009691
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