Virgin and Child, with Scenes from the Lives of Christ and Saint Francis

The central panel shows the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child, presented in a frontal, solemn pose within a gilded arch and a gold background that bears a grid-like pattern. The outer shutters depict narrative scenes from the lives of Christ and Saint Francis, arranged in compact vertical formats and set against similar gold fields, with the figures rendered in a restrained, hieratic style. The palette relies on gold and earth tones, with the Virgin in a dark mantle and the Child in red, and the painting exhibits the delicate line work and soft modeling characteristic of Duccio’s Sienese panel painting, now showing visible cracking and wear.