Lorenzo Monaco's busy workshop in Florence produced book illustrations and altarpieces, some for his own monastery.
This little diptych was used by one of his brother monks; St Jerome's study reflected the learned brother's scholarly pursuits, whilst the Madonna provided a focus for private worship.
Jerome's lecturn is equipped two shelves to aid transcription, one for the source and the other for the new work.

Trays such as these were brought as gifts to women after childbirth, as one of the guests on the left is doing. This one has a boy playing with a dog(?) on the back and dates from Masaccio's last period in Florence, before he went to Rome.
His mastery of perspective is apparent even in this small tondo.

St Peter Martyr presents a diminutive child with raised arms to the Virgin and Child, who is attended by St Dominic, St Thomas Aquinas and the Baptist.
On the left, the Mary's follow Christ on the road to Calvary. On the right, Mary and Mary Magdalen kneel at the foot of the cross.
At the top of the shutters is an Annunication.

This small triptych, made for private devotion, shows the Birth of the Virgin as told in the Golden Legend.
Saint Anne is shown in bed in the central panel of the triptych. The Virgin Mary is being washed by midwives in the foreground. In the left wing Saint Joachim is told the news of the birth; in the right wing two women prepare a meal.

The Virgin's gown is of a formal type worn by Florentine noblewomen from the late 1430's to c. 1450, and the height of her belt suggests a date in the late 1440's or early 1450's. The short gowns worn by the angels reflect Florentine male fashion of c. 1440-52.
The pronounced fashionable nature of the costumes of the Virgin and Child suggests that the painting was especially commissioned as a 'colmo da camera' for a female client who could, through the sumptuous contemporary clothing, identify with the Virgin and her baby.

In his early years Giovanni Bellini and his workshop executed a considerable number of small devotional images destined for private ownership. Such paintings were part of the normal output of a busy Venetian workshop. Some were signed with the master's name, in this case on the parapet.
The attribution of this panel has varied.

Manuscript illumination reached a peak in the second half of the 15th century.
Francesco was a follower of Fra Angelico who specialised in the illustration of the works of the humanists, as well as illuminating the prayer book of Lorenzo de'Medici.
In the middle of the page is the Annunciation, with the Nativity below. The medallions hold prophets and sybils.

Small devotional images such as this were produced in large numbers by craftsmen and lesser-known artists for the homes of Florence's middle class. These artists also acted as assistants on major commissions; Jacopo worked with Filippo Lippi, Ghirlandaio, and Botticelli.
The panel reflects the concerns of Florentine merchants and their pride in their city; clear in the distant landscape can be seen the Palazzo Vecchio, Brunelleschi's dome, and the campanile.
On the left of the painting is an axe embedded in a tree trunk; this refers to Luke 3:9: "every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down."
It was a warning against the unorthodox beliefs of some of the city's patrician elite, echoing Savonarola's condemnatory sermons.

The fashion for Flemish-inspired works is reflected in this small panel by Antonello, who lived in Naples from 1445 and became acquainted with Flemish painting.
It is signed in tiny characters on a small piece of parchment on a piece of wood broken off from the crucifix in the left foreground: '1475 Antonellus Messaneus me pinxit.'