La Vierge d'humilité de Niccolò di Buonaccorso

The Virgin of Humility by Niccolò di Buonaccorso (active in 1372-1388) came to the Louvre in February 2011 through a deed of donation with retention of right usufruct made by Mrs Lanini-Strölin (1921-2003) in 1976. This painting, without its original frame, was probably the middle part of a triptych, although there is no trace of the hinges of the side panels. Two works help date it: a Virgin and Child, now in San Diego, a fragment of a polyptych formerly dated 1387, and the little painting of a Virgin and Child surrounded by saints in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, which can be dated approximately to the late 1370s and the early 1380s. The painting represents what is called a "Virgin of Humility", a subject mistakenly regarded as an "invention" by the Sienese painter Simone Martini. The rapid spread of the theme and its many iconographic variants suggest is was probably a "collective invention", a concept borrowed from modern economic history. The Louvre painting is characterised by the painstaking depiction of the objects around the Virgin: Mary is humbly seated on a cushion in front of an elegant piece of furniture, on which we see a prayer book and pieces of needlework. The latter can be identified as brevi, small talisman sachets worn around the neck as amulets, sometimes containing relics or prayers. The Louvre painting was most probably for its owner's private devotion. It was previously thought these small Virgins of Humility were suitable for the nuns' devotions. The furniture, the private prayer book and the needlework also support the idea that Niccolò painted this scene for a devout gentlewoman.