Santa Francesca Romana Clothed by the Virgin

Antonio del Massaro da Viterbo

Tempera on wood, gold ground

Metropolitan Museum of Art

This luminous gold-ground panel captures a mystical vision in which the Virgin and Child, flanked by angels, bestow a habit upon Santa Francesca Romana, whose order is shown gathered below in rippling white robes. Painted in the lingering Gothic tradition of fifteenth-century Italy, the work combines decorative pattern, tender narrative detail, and a charming vignette of an angel weaving at a loom with a cat curled nearby. Antonio del Massaro, known as Antoniazzo Romano, was a leading painter in Rome during this period, prized for blending Byzantine-inspired gold grounds with emerging Renaissance naturalism. Its warm palette and devotional intimacy make this an enchanting, story-rich piece for any wall.