Editing Maestà (section)

{{Short description|Depiction of the enthroned Madonna and Child}}
[[File:San Francesco Cimabue.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Cimabue]]'s ''Maestà '', [[Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi|Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi]].]]
[[File:Duccio Maestà.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The central panel of [[Duccio]]'s ''[[Maestà (Duccio)|Maestà with Twenty Angels and Nineteen Saints]]'' (1308–1311), [[Museo dell'Opera Metropolitana del Duomo a Siena|Museo dell'Opera del Duomo]], [[Siena]].]]
'''Maestà''' {{IPA|it|maeˈsta|}}, the Italian word for "majesty", designates a classification of [[Iconography|images]] of the enthroned [[Madonna (art)|Madonna]] with the [[child Jesus]], the designation generally implying accompaniment by [[angel]]s, [[saint]]s, or both. The ''Maestà'' is an extension of the "[[Seat of Wisdom]]" theme of the seated "Mary [[Theotokos]]", "Mary Mother of God", which is a counterpart to the earlier icon of [[Christ in Majesty]], the enthroned Christ that is familiar in Byzantine [[mosaics]]. ''Maria Regina'' is an art historians' synonym for the [[icon]]ic image of Mary enthroned, with or without the Child.<ref>See M. Lawrence's discussion of this image, ''Maria Regina'', ''Art Bulletin'' '''7''' (1924–1925:150-61.</ref>

In the West, the image seems to have developed from Byzantine precedents such as the coin of Constantine's Empress [[Fausta]], crowned and with their sons on her lap<ref>Suggested by Lawrence 1924:</ref> and from literary examples, such as [[Flavius Cresconius Corippus]]'s celebration of [[Justin II]]'s coronation in 565.<ref>In Corippus' poem, Sophia (Wisdom) prays ''Virgo, creatoris genitrix sanctissima mundi, excelsi regina poli…''. (''Corippus'', A. Cameron, ed., ''In laudem Justini augusti minoris'' (London) 1976, vol. II:52f. The more familiar ''In laudem Mariae'', praising Mary as [[Regina Coeli|Queen of Heaven]], is a late sixth century poem, perhaps by [[Venantius Fortunatus]].</ref> Paintings depicting the ''Maestà'' came into the mainstream artistic repertory, especially in Rome, in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries,<ref>Several rare examples in fresco and mosaic, including the lost apse mosaic in the first church in Rome dedicated to Mary, the [[Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore]], are listed by John L. Osborne, "Early Medieval Painting in San Clemente, Rome: The Madonna and Child in the Niche", ''Gesta'' '''20'''.2 (1981:299–310) p. 304f.</ref> with an increased emphasis on the veneration of Mary. The ''Maestà'' was often executed in [[fresco]] technique directly on plastered walls or as paintings on gessoed wooden [[altar]] [[panel painting|panels]].

A more domestic representation, suitable to private devotion, is the iconographic theme of [[Madonna and Child]].