1 INTRODUCTION

In the late Medieval and early Renaissance periods there were two common methods of painting the Virgin's mantle, both of which were described by Cennino Cennini in his Il Libro dell'Arte. There was also a third method, much rarer than the other two, that has been found by the present writer in only four paintings. Distinct from the two more common techniques, it is nevertheless related in an abstract fashion to one of them, and, furthermore, borrows from a tradition practiced in the late thirteenth century. It should be viewed, therefore, as a logical outgrowth of practices present in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Linked as it is to previous traditions, the first two techniques will be briefly examined before discussing the more rarely practiced one.