The National Museum of Abruzzo in L’Aquila is preparing to add Nicola da Guardiagrele’s Madonna and Child with Angels (known as the “Madonna of Humility”) to its exhibition circuit. It is a small panel painting executed in tempera and gold (68 × 52 × 6 cm) depicting the Virgin seated on a red cushion—wrapped in a voluminous blue mantle adorned with golden motifs—with the Christ Child asleep on her lap.
The panel, which dates to around 1425, will be unveiled to the public on September 15, 2026, and displayed in Room 8 of the Castello Cinquecentesco. There, visitors will be able to admire it in dialogue with works by the Master of the Beffi Triptych and Walter Monich, as part of an exhibition path illustrating the richness and complexity of Abruzzo’s visual culture between the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
The work holds particular significance in the study of Nicola da Guardiagrele (Guardiagrele, Chieti; before 1389 – c. 1456/1459), an artist best known for his work as a goldsmith and responsible for a much more limited body of paintings. Indeed, this panel is the only signed painting attributed to him and stands as one of the most important examples of regional painting from the early 15th century.
In the spirit of the National Museum System, the work has been placed on loan to the National Museum of Abruzzo by the Uffizi Galleries in Florence for an initial period of five years, subject to renewal.
This initiative aims to make a work of great importance to the region’s artistic history accessible to the public once again, while simultaneously enriching the Museum’s exhibition with a painting that engages in a direct dialogue with the 15th-century Abruzzese works already held in the MuNDA collections.
This deposit aligns with the policy of enhancing and expanding the collections that the Director, Federica Zalabra, has been pursuing for years, with a particular focus on works originating from the Abruzzo region that are currently housed in other institutions of the Ministry of Culture:
«The arrival of Nicola da Guardiagrele’s Madonna and Child with Angels at MuNDA continues the work of enhancing and enriching the museum’s collections—an ongoing effort pursued for years. Rediscovering works linked to the history of Abruzzo within the storage facilities of Ministry of Culture institutions means restoring visibility to a heritage often far removed from the locations for which it was originally created, while also deepening our understanding of the region’s artistic history. This initiative aims to rebuild the connections between artworks and their original contexts—ties that had gradually weakened over time, partly due to the absence of a regional museum capable of housing, preserving, and displaying these works to the public prior to the establishment of the National Museum of Abruzzo.»
The earliest known record of the painting dates back to 1848, when the scholar Angelo Leosini—a native of L’Aquila—described a panel painting of the Virgin and Child with two angels, bearing the inscription “Opus Nicolai de Guardia Grelis,” in the handwritten notes of his personal copy of Monumenti storici artistici della città di Aquila e suoi contorni (Historical and Artistic Monuments of the City of L’Aquila and Its Surroundings).
After leaving the Abruzzo region, the painting reappeared in 1905 at the Mostra d’arte antica abruzzese (Exhibition of Ancient Abruzzese Art) in Chieti, where it was exhibited by the Florentine antiquarian Giuseppe Salvadori. On that occasion, it caught the attention of Corrado Ricci—then director of the Uffizi Galleries—who recommended its acquisition to the Ministry of Public Education. The work thus entered the Uffizi collections in 1906, where it has since been held in storage.
Its return to Abruzzo therefore holds special significance for the ongoing efforts to enhance and enrich the Museum’s collections.
The placement of the work on loan is accompanied by the publication La Madonna dell’Umiltà di Nicola da Guardiagrele: dalle Gallerie degli Uffizi al Museo Nazionale d’Abruzzo (Edizioni Palumbi, Teramo 2026), edited by Federica Zalabra.
The volume brings together essays that explore the painting’s history, attribution, and importance within the context of 15th-century Abruzzese painting; these include a contribution by Cristiana Pasqualetti, which reconstructs the role of Nicola da Guardiagrele’s workshop and examines its function within the artistic production of the era.