Holy Conversation

The room is dedicated to Italian painting of religious subjects of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, from the late fourteenth to the early sixteenth century; all the paintings in this space are on panel. The bigger pictures ("altar pieces") decorated the altars of churches or chapels, the smaller ones were part of multiple panels (polyptychs). Especially in Florence, the circular format was typical of the devotional paintings for private residences and not for churches.