Madonna and Child with Two Angels, St. Francis and St. Louis of Toulouse
Paolo di Giovanni Fei
Italian, ca. 1345–1411
Details
Title
Madonna and Child with Two Angels, St. Francis and St. Louis of Toulouse
Artist/Maker
Paolo di Giovanni Fei (Italian, ca. 1345–1411)
Date
ca. 1375
Medium
Tempera and silver gilding on panel
Dimensions
70 1/8 x 50 5/8 inches
Credit
Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Accession #
58.42
In this altarpiece that originally may have hung in a Franciscan chapel, the Christ child’s gesture invites us to draw near, into the realm of angels. Kneeling in the foreground are St. Francis of Assisi on the left—identifiable by his humble burlap robe and the stigmata on his hands resembling the wounds of the crucified Christ—and St. Louis of Toulouse on the right, who became a Franciscan monk after renouncing his right to the French throne, symbolized by the cast-off crown at his feet.