The rectangular panel shows the crowned Virgin with a halo in rayed relief seated on a wooden throne, holding the tunicated Child on her lap and wearing leather laced sandals, in a frontal position according to the Byzantine typology of the Nicopeia, the “bringer of victory” in Greek, an iconography that alludes to the future resurrection of Christ, Savior of the world.

On either sides of the throne are two saints, smaller in size so as to give greater prominence to the Madonna and Child group, which is difficult to identify because of their lack of attributes. Certainly the one on the left is wearing a red tunic and has a book in his left hand, while the one on the right wears a blue robe covered with a red mantle, with a cap on his head, while in his hand he holds a book.

A large part of the figuration has been recovered thanks to the 2001 restoration, while the lower part of the panel remains illegible due to the extensive colour falls caused by the poor conservation conditions suffered in the past and the repeated repainting carried out in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The panel came to the Museum from the church of Santa Maria a Bagnano, a district near the castle area of Semifonte, but probably it was originally executed for the church of Santo Stefano a Bagnano, which was suppressed as early as 1599.

We owe to Richard Offner (1933) the attribution of this panel to the Master of Bigallo, so called from the Crucifix preserved at the Museo del Bigallo in Florence, one of the most interesting protagonists of the Florentine artistic scene in the first half of the thirteenth century for his language characterized by bright and vivid colors, very close in compositional construction and stylistic innovation to the Master of Rovezzano, author of the Madonna di Rovezzano, still in the church of Sant’Andrea a Rovezzano in Florence, and to the Master of Greve, in particular the Madonna di Casale (Florence, Uffizi Galleries), both works executed in the first quarter of the thirteenth century. On these two artists therefore had to be trained the Master of Bigallo who, in a later period, was seduced by the sweet, soft characters and spiritual iconicity of Sienese painting, as can be seen from the strong influence of the Madonna with the Big Eyes by the Master of Tressa (Siena, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo) on the Certaldo panel.