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Virgin and Child with Two Angels
Sandro Botticelli (Italian, 1444/45–1510)
1485–95
- Medium
- Tempera on panel
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Diam.: 34.4 cm (13 1/2 in.); Framed: 6.4 × 44.5 cm (2 1/2 × 17 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- Italy
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Max and Leola Epstein Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Sandro Botticelli’s works mark the culmination of a mystical religious tradition in the art of early Renaissance Florence, from the paintings of Lorenzo Monaco and Fra Angelico through those of Fra Filippo Lippi, Botticelli’s teacher. In this lyrical late work by Botticelli, two angels draw back curtains to reveal the Virgin and Child, who are framed by slender trees in a setting suggesting a throne. The intimate presentation of the holy figures and Christ’s gesture of blessing suggest that this small painting served a private devotional function. This supposition is supported by the choice of format, since a Florentine patron would have typically commissioned a circular painting, or tondo, for use in a bedchamber.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
