Details

Title

A King with His Counselors

Artist/Maker

Master of Marradi (Italian, late 15th C.)

Date

ca. 1490

Medium

Tempera on panel

Dimensions

24 3/4 x 16 1/2 inches

Credit

Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation

Accession #

58.48

Location

Currently not on view

This scene takes place in a decorated hall with two windows through which a distant landscape is visible. A king sits enthroned beneath a red and gold canopy atop a flight of stairs. His counselors stand in pairs before him in the foreground, each older man accompanied by a youth. The steps leading up and back suggest depth and contribute to a sense of theatrical drama. The decorative quality and symbolic gold leaf are indicative of earlier traditions, while the inclusion of a landscape view is more progressive.