A Short History of the Middle Ages Fourth Edition

Plate 7.2: Pietro Lorenzetti, Birth of the Virgin (1342). This painted altarpiece creates an architectural space
of real depth in which figures of convincing solidity act and interact; compare them with Saint Joseph in
Plate 6.6, p. 227. Note how the ribs, rose windows, and arches of a Gothic church are used here as both
decorative and unifying elements.