The Maestà of the Palazzo Comunale in Pistoia: Civic Art and Marian Devotion in the Pistoiese Commune of the Fourteenth Century

The Maestà on the ground floor of Pistoia’s Palazzo Comunale is here examined for the first time in relation to iconography, function, and audience. The article calls attention to archival discoveries that indicate a clear chronology for the fresco and suggest the names of painters who may have been involved. The circumstances of Pistoiese civic commissions of the 1330s and 1340s are clarified against the backdrop of Florentine hegemony in the region. It is argued that in Pistoia images of the Virgin had an underlined political function and gave visual expression to the identity of the Commune, especially in civic spaces where government ceremonies were performed.