The original colour of the Virgin’s mantle is once again discernible in the Master of 1416’s Madonna and Child with Eight Angels. Conservators used a laser to work selectively on the painted surface, and recovered and reassembled the frame.
From 6 October 2026 to 14 March 2027, the panel is on display on the first floor of Florence’s Galleria dell’Accademia alongside the Madonna and Child with Saints Peter, Anthony Abbot, Julian and John the Baptist. The display brings the two paintings together after their respective restorations.
The Master of 1416 was an anonymous painter active in Florence during the first quarter of the 15th century. His conventional name comes from the inscription ‘MCCCCXVI d’agosto’ at the base of the Madonna with saints. An identification with Bartolomeo di Pietro has been proposed, but remains a hypothesis.
The panel with saints has been on display at the Accademia since 1915. Harsh cleaning and extensive overpainting had altered its surface. A restoration carried out by Elisabetta Bianco has made its details and relationships between colours easier to see.
The Madonna with eight angels, restored by Lucia Biondi, is being shown to the public for the first time since its restoration. It entered the museum’s collection in 2017 and echoes, on a smaller scale, a Madonna painted by Bernardo Daddi in 1347 and housed in Orcagna’s tabernacle at Orsanmichele.
In both works, elongated figures, flowing folds of fabric and combinations of colour evoke the International Gothic style and invite comparison with Lorenzo Monaco. Seen side by side, the panels allow visitors to examine these features on surfaces that are now more legible.
The display also includes images and a video about the paintings’ conservation problems, the investigations and the solutions adopted. Visitors can see not only the results of the restorations, but some of the work that made them possible.
