: The Madonna and Child Being Crowned by Two Angels

Crowned by two Angels hovering above her, the Virgin is seated in front of a richly decorated classical architectural structure, characterized by side plates supporting an architrave embellished by fruit festoons and upon which, to the right, stands out a gracious vase of flowers; an oriental rug is arranged so as to cover the railing in front of which stands Maria. An opening in the lower part of the parapet reveals a fragment of the landscape, rocky on the left side and characterized by the presence of slender saplings and bushes on the right. The painting was auctioned at Christie’s in 1973 as a work of art of Maestro Esiguo, but in 1980 Anna Padoa Rizzo identified the anonymous painter as Alesso, the youngest son of Benozzo Gozzoli, who assisted his father in the execution of the Tabernacle of Visitation fresco of Caltelfiorentino. The faces of the figures, for example, are perfectly similar to other facial types perceptible in the fore mentioned Tabernacle of Caltelfiorentino, suc