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Two panels, The Dead Christ and the Virgin (National Gallery, London) and Sts John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) originally formed a diptych which may have been commissioned by Queen Sancia of Naples (1286-1345), the wife of King Rene of Anjou, who was particularly devoted to Mary Magdalene and was the founder of Santa Chiara.
The combination of the Man of Sorrows and the Virgin with John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene in a diptych is unique. It was usual from the thirteenth century onwards to represent the Man of Sorrows in one wing with the Virgin and Child in the other.
Giotto was called to Naples by Robert of Anjou in 1328. He took with him a number of painters who had worked with him on the frescoes in the Lower Church of San Francesco, Assisi. The diptych was likely painted by a member of Giotto's workshop in Naples, who was active on the frescoes in the Church of Santa Chiara. Giotto's Neapolitan workshop may have continued to operate after he returned to Florence in 1333.
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