AMORY: These two panels were painted by Simone Martini, one of the greatest Sienese painters of the fourteenth century. They’re part of an altarpiece that originally comprised five panels—one of the other panels is upstairs in the European Paintings galleries. Laurence Kanter.

KANTER: Together, they form the altarpiece that was ordered by the Sienese government to be installed in the governor's mansion in Siena. Unlike any altarpiece at the time, the governor's altarpiece was meant to be portable. It had to be carried from house to house every six months, because the Sienese Republic, refusing to allow any of it own citizens to acquire too much power, required the governor always to be elected from a citizen of another town. And the term of office was every six months. This person then had to rent a mansion in Siena, and each time he rented a new house, the new governor, the altarpiece tracked along with him. The Madonna and Child is preserved in a near perfect state. You can see the very delicate work in the gold, as well as in the colors of the virgin's robe and the child's gown and tunic. But even more sophisticated to my way of thinking are the now-darkened colors of St. Ansanus's purple cape. Or the muscles and tendons of his fingers as they wrap around the staff he holds. A remarkably sophisticated device for a 14th Century painter. In the Simone Martini, you see the first efforts in the direction of realistic anatomy being portrayed in Western art.