Quaratesi Polyptych [SEP] creator
Quaratesi Polyptych
The Quaratesi Polyptych is a painting by the Italian late medieval painter Gentile da Fabriano, now divided between several museums.
It was painted by the artist for the Quaratesi family's chapel in the Church of San Niccolò Oltrarno, perhaps not a long time after the Strozzi Altarpiece. Today four of the five original compartments (including the painted cusp) are known, as well as some parts of the predella (which has scenes of the "Life of St. Nicholas"):
- "Madonna with Child
in a garden whose botanic species are painted in deep detail. Details include the ampulla (not painted, but engraved in gold) held by Mary Magdalene in her fingers' tips: later, influenced by Masaccio's realism, Gentile would paint the same subject as firmly hold in Mary's hands in the Quaratesi Polyptych. 
The smaller panels in the upper cusps depict "Saint John the Baptist Praying in the Desert", the "Martyrdom of Saint Peter of Verona", a "Franciscan Saint Reading" and "Saint