The Indianapolis Museum of Art’s most significant example of Tuscan High Renaissance art will again be on view in the IMA galleries after being held in storage for more than 40 years due to its fragile condition. After a complex conservation treatment begun in fall 2007, the altarpiece Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saint Justus of Volterra and Saint Margaret of Antioch by Sebastiano Mainardi (1466–1513), will again be available for public viewing in the IMA’s Clowes Courtyard beginning June 23, 2009.
…Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saint Justus of Volterra and Saint Margaret of Antioch is considered a major work of Mainardi’s from late in his career. Created in 1507 during the height of the Italian Renaissance, the 63.5- by 61-inch painting was commissioned to adorn the altar of a church. The altarpiece has significant provenance, having belonged to popular American novelist and Indianapolis native Booth Tarkington. It was donated by Mrs. Tarkington in honor of her late husband in 1951, and was displayed at the John Herron Museum of Art.
