Laser technology reveals original colors of rare Florentine altarpieces at Accademia
Master of 1416, Madonna and Child with Saints Peter, Anthony Abbot, Julian, and John the Baptist. Photo: Claudio Giusti.
FLORENCE.—
Two early 15th-century paintings by the anonymous artist known as the Master of 1416 are returning to public view at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence following major conservation work that has revealed new details about their materials, history and authorship.
From October 6, 2026 through March 14, 2027, Madonna and Child with Saints Peter, Anthony Abbot, Julian and John the Baptist and Madonna and Child with Eight Angels will be shown together in a dedicated presentation on the museum’s first floor. The display is the latest installment of the Galleria’s Restored Works on Display initiative, which brings recently conserved works back before the public while also explaining the research and technical work behind their restoration.
Shown side by side, the two panels offer a rare opportunity to compare works associated with an artist active in Florence during the first quarter of the 15th century. Scholars use the conventional name “Master of 1416” because one of the paintings bears the date August 1416; the artist may possibly be identified with Bartolomeo di Pietro, documented between 1412 and 1427.
The larger of the two works, Madonna and Child with Saints Peter, Anthony Abbot, Julian and John the Baptist, is central to the reconstruction of the painter’s career. The inscription “MCCCCXVI d’agosto” at the base of the panel gave the Master of 1416 his modern name. The altarpiece was probably commissioned by the Arte dei Beccai, Florence’s guild of meat merchants and butchers. Saint Peter, the guild’s patron, occupies a prominent place beside the Virgin, while Saint Anthony Abbot, protector of animals, further supports that connection. The painting entered the Florentine Galleries in 1782 and has been on view at the Accademia since 1915.
Its restoration focused on a paint surface that had been weakened by earlier aggressive cleanings and altered by extensive overpainting. Conservators were able to rebalance the surface and recover details and color relationships that had become difficult to read.
The second panel, Madonna and Child with Eight Angels, takes as its model Bernardo Daddi’s celebrated 1347 Madonna in Orcagna’s tabernacle at Orsanmichele. While still rooted in that Trecento tradition, the painting also reflects the International Gothic taste of the early 1400s, particularly in the shimmering color effects of the angels’ garments and the influence of Lorenzo Monaco.
The work came from the women’s monastery of Santa Apollonia and was acquired by the Italian State in 1865 following the suppression of religious institutions. It entered the Galleria dell’Accademia’s collections only in 2017 and is now being exhibited to the public for the first time following restoration.
That intervention made particular use of laser technology, allowing conservators to work selectively on the painted surface and recover the original color of the Virgin’s mantle. The frame was also restored and reconstructed, improving both the visual unity and structural stability of the work.
According to Andreina Contessa, Director General of GAMB, restoration is not simply a matter of preserving an object but also a way of asking new questions about it. The investigations undertaken during conservation, she noted, can recover details, colors and technical information that have become obscured over time. The aim of the Restored Works on Display project is to make that process visible to visitors rather than presenting conservation as something that happens entirely behind the scenes.
The presentation is curated by art historian Elvira Altiero and conservator-restorer Eleonora Pucci. The installation was designed by architects Roberto Lembo and Giorgios Papaevangeliu and is accompanied by a video by Domenico Spampinato documenting the principal conservation problems, diagnostic investigations and treatments carried out on the paintings.
Stylistically, both works preserve links with the Neo-Giottesque tradition while also showing the elongated figures, flowing drapery and refined color associated with International Gothic painting. Their joint display offers a more complex view of Florentine painting on the eve of the Renaissance, when older pictorial traditions and newer courtly styles were still overlapping.
The project also draws attention to the Accademia’s important holdings of the so-called “Primitives,” painters who preceded the full emergence of Renaissance visual language and whose works form one of the historic cores of the museum’s collection.
Restored Works on Display: Two Paintings by the Master of 1416 is on view at the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze from October 6, 2026 through March 14, 2027.
