Paradise

Giovanni di Paolo (Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia)

1445 · Tempera and gold on canvas, transferred from wood · European Paintings

Together with a scene of the Creation and Expulsion from Paradise, also in The Met (Robert Lehman Collection), this picture formed the base (predella) of an altarpiece formerly in the church of San Domenico, Siena (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence). Painted in 1445, the two paintings rank among the finest works by the artist. Groups of saints and angels embrace in a rich, tapestry-like garden of Paradise. Giovanni di Paolo was much inspired by paintings he saw in Florence by Fra Angelico, but he rejected the perspectival rationalism of Florentine art in favor of a visionary effect of exquisite intensity. For more information about this painting, including a reconstruction of the altarpiece, visit metmuseum.org.

Artist

Giovanni di Paolo (Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia)

Date

1445

Medium

Tempera and gold on canvas, transferred from wood

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1906