colors used throughout the composition. These golden halos differ between the two figures in the painting—Christ's is articulated by an inlaid cruciform to distinguish his divine status. The Madonna boasts timeless stylized features of the Virgin. Her fingers, nose, and neck are exaggeratedly long and slender and her face itself is elongated and narrow. Her soulful eyes are large and intensely focused, lending her visage a particular elegance. Upon seeing the painting in person, one can observe a red tint in the cheeks of both Jesus and Mary that gives the flesh a lifelike quality - more vivacious, in fact, than its Byzantine predecessors. The particular depth created by the shading of the faces, Mary's in particular - an attribute of early Italian painting - also gives it an air of naturalism that Byzantine figures often lacked. Works by Berlinghieri can be found at the San Matteo National Museum in Pisa, the National Museum of Villa Guinigi in Lucca, the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Notes 13th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Gothic painters Painters from Lucca Year of birth unknown 1230s deaths Romanesque artists