Sestieri's

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A woman cradling an upright male child sits on a semi-circular throne surrounded by four winged angels in this vertical painting, which comes to a shallow, triangular point at the top. The people and angels have pale skin tinged with green, and all have flat, disk-like gold halos. The woman wears a voluminous, navy-blue mantle covered in a dense pattern of gold lines, which drapes over her head and wraps around her rose-pink gown. A sliver of a pumpkin-orange cap covering her hair peeks out from under the mantle. Her body is angled to our right and her head tilts in that direction. She looks up and to our left with large hazel-brown eyes under arched brows. Her long nose and closed, peach-colored mouth are set in an oval face. The boy’s shoulders and legs are wrapped in a rose-pink robe that leaves his torso bare. He sits in the curve of the woman’s left arm, to our right, so his body is angled toward her. He has brown hair and adult-like facial features. He reaches one hand toward the woman’s throat with his index and middle fingers raised, while she points to him with her other hand, on our left. The cream-white, stone throne curves around the pair. The back has three levels of recessed panels above a band of brick red, where it meets the wider base. The base has two levels of inset panels, and the seat is covered with a scarlet-red cloth. The front of the arms and the top of the curved back are lined with ruby-red finials. Two angels stand on each side, with one positioned higher than the other, and all four are angled inward to look at the woman and child. The angels on the bottom wear slate-blue gowns while the ones on top wear robes in the same rose pink as the child. The background in the upper zone of the painting is gold. Some areas of gold in the background and in the halos have partially worn away. The painting is in a dark wooden frame that follows the angles along the pointed top.
Master of Città di Castello, Maestà (Madonna and Child with Four Angels), c. 1290, tempera on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.77

Maestà (Madonna and Child with Four Angels)

Master of Città di Castello · c. 1290 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.77

Shown from the waist up, an elderly, balding, light-skinned man with a bushy white beard sits behind a table, facing us, in front of a winged angel who looks on in this shadowy, horizontal painting. The man sits with his body angled slightly to our right, and he turns his head to look in the opposite direction. His eyes are sunk in shadow under deeply furrowed brows, set in his lined face. His sparse, gray and white hair is tousled. He wears only a scarlet-red cloth draped across his lap and over his sinewy left arm, on our right. His open left hand is raised, palm up, at shoulder height. In his other hand, he holds a pen, hovering over a partially unwound scroll. His forearm rests on an open book beneath the scroll. He looks over his right shoulder at the curly-haired angel with snow-white wings. The angel wears a flowing, light blue robe with a golden yellow cloth draped around the chest and over the shoulders. Softly smiling, the backlit angel leans toward the man, face deep in shadow. With arms lifted, one hand gestures with a slightly crooked finger, pointing beyond the picture’s border to our left. In the other hand, the angel holds a golden horn in the dusky background behind the man’s left shoulder. Behind the man and angel and to our right, a single candle sits on two books lying in an arched wall niche. On the desk closest to us are a crumpled cloth on a book, a shiny rust-brown ball, a pair of eyeglasses, an inkpot, an hourglass, and a second book, to our right. Light coming from our upper left starkly illuminates the two people against the shadowed, earth-brown background.
Simon Vouet, Saint Jerome and the Angel, c. 1622/1625, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.52

Saint Jerome and the Angel

Simon Vouet · c. 1622/1625 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.9.52

Sixteen men and boys stand around a man lying on a bed, Saint Anthony, in this square painting. A seventeenth mourner kneels on our side of the bed and faces Saint Anthony. Some of the onlookers have their hair cut into rings around their heads, and others’ heads are covered by hoods. They all have pale skin tinged with green, and they wear robes in shades of black, smoky purple, brown, or cream white. A man at the foot of the bed wears a sky-blue robe edged with golden orange down the front as he reads from an open book. Two boys to the left wear white and black and hold tall candles, and a third man, wearing black, holds a cross on a high staff. Others hold candlesticks, walking sticks, books, or stand with hands clasped. Saint Anthony has a long white beard and wears a black hood and muted pink and black robe. One hand rests by his side, and the other rests on his chest. His eyes are closed, and his head is surrounded by a gold and red halo. The bed is draped with a vivid crimson-red cloth. The walls of the room are parchment white striped with mauve pink and black on the upper half. Arched windows and doorways open onto rooms and a courtyard with trees beyond this space. The floor is rose pink.
Master of the Osservanza, Sano di Pietro, The Death of Saint Anthony, c. 1430/1435, tempera on poplar panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.73

The Death of Saint Anthony

Master of the Osservanza, Sano di Pietro · c. 1430/1435 · tempera on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.73

Alessandro Algardi, Saint Matthew, c. 1640, terracotta, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1970.7.1

Saint Matthew

Alessandro Algardi · c. 1640 · terracotta ·  Accession ID  1970.7.1