It is a large (7.5 x 4 feet) tempera painting (seen here) in a basilica in Siena, produced in the year 1261. What makes it particularly interesting is that one of the first records including Coppo's name is a list of Florentine soldiers in the war with Siena that ended in 1260, which the Sienese won.
The assumption of some historians is that Coppo may have been taken prisoner in Siena, and that his reputation as a painter must have been so well-established that he was asked (required) to produce the Madonna del Bordone, perhaps as a condition of his release. Otherwise, perhaps he was not a prisoner and was commissioned as part of ongoing peace-keeping attempts between the two city-states.
Many depictions of Madonna and Christ Child up to this point focused on the abstract nature of divinity, and the child and mother are displayed looking straight at the viewer, sometimes sitting in a very symmetrical pose facing outward. Coppo's painting shows the child looking tenderly at his mother, while she has her head turned slightly towards him but with her eyes looking toward and engaging the viewer.
Although the clothing of the two figures is indicative of northern Italy, the poses of the two figures are similar to the way Byzantine art at the time was representing Madonna-Child art. This Italo-Byzantine style is well-known to art historians, and we'll look at some further examples (and the reason for them) tomorrow.
