Description

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.

Provenance

Possibly Monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence [Fahy 1969, p. 16 suggested that it might be the painting described by Vasari, “Very beautiful, too, is a little round picture by [Botticelli’s] hand that is seen in the apartment of the Prior of the Angeli in Florence, in which the figures are small but very graceful and wrought with beautiful consideration,” in Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, tr. by Gaston Du C. de Vere, New York, 1979, p. 675]. Julius Böhler, Munich [according to a letter from Böhler to Everett Fahy dated January 20, 1969 in curatorial files]; sold by Böhler to Max Epstein (d. 1954), Chicago, by 1928 [according to the letter cited above, as well as Old Masters 1928 and the Chicago 1928 exhibition]; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1954; on loan to his widow, Leola Epstein, Chicago, 1955–68.

Virgin and Child with Two Angels

Sandro Botticelli

1485–95

Accession Number

80526

Medium

Tempera on panel

Dimensions

Diam.: 34.4 cm (13 1/2 in.); Framed: Diam.: 44.5 cm (17 1/2 in.)

Classification

painting

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Max and Leola Epstein Collection