Madonna and Child with the Dead Christ, Saints Agnes and Catherine of Alexandria, and Two Angels

Sano’s active workshop was the principal source in Siena for devotional images of the Madonna and Child, invariably shown bust-length, accompanied by saints and angels. The saints on the base (predella) are Mary Magdalen, Francis, Jerome, and Margaret. The predominance of female saints together with Saints Francis and Jerome suggest the work may have been destined for a female associated with the lay order of the Jesuati, founded in Siena in 1360, or a member of the Confraternity of the Virgin, to which Sano himself belonged.