In the 14th and early 15th centuries, Venice was one of the most powerful cities in Europe. It commanded a vast maritime empire and dominated trade in the eastern Mediterranean. Its artists responded to the influx of luxury goods and artistic stimuli from Africa, Byzantium and Persia.
The extravagant use of colour by 14th-century painters like Lorenzo Veneziano paved the way for later generations of Venetians including Michele Giambono, the Vivarini and the Bellini.
Venice and its territories attracted painters from across Italy, such as Gentile da Fabriano. Others, including the unknown Dalmatian painter of the Altarpiece of the Virgin Mary, worked on both sides of the Adriatic Sea. This work depicts the Virgin of Humility. It shows Mary seated on the ground, emphasising her role as a compassionate intercessor.
This iconography was popular in northern Italy at the time, as attested by other examples shown here. Among them is a rare surviving work on canvas by Lippo di Dalmasio, a Bolognese painter who responded to the tenderness of earlier Sienese depictions of the Virgin and Child.