Where was this produced?
This painting was produced in either Tuscany or Pisa, Italy. In general, Northern Italian panel painting was most prominent in Siena. Pisa and Siena are fairly close to each other and the most famous panel painters come from these regions. Thus, artistic techniques were easily communicated and transported among these two Italian cities.
As stated above, images of the Virgin were brought by emigrants from Eastern provinces of the Byzantine empires to Italy. Italian patrons were intrigued by Eastern iconic images and wanted to incorporate them into their art education system. Certain evidence suggests that Italian painters studied Byzantine or Crusader icons to respond to this growing interest of Italian patrons. According to Van Os in his account Sienese Altarpieces 1215-1460, “The Byzantine influence reached the cities of Tuscany through the schools of Pisa and Lucca, which were in the forefront of this artistic renewal, but artists and works of art were also imported directly from Byzantium itself” (Van Os 17). In other words, these art schools in Italy would not have had access to the Byzantine tradition if it were not for this mass transmission of Eastern icons to the West.