Madonna and Child with an Angel
by BOTTICELLI, Sandro, Tempera on panel, 87 x 60 cm
It is possible that this somewhat awkward painting of the Madonna was produced while Botticelli was still working in the workshop of his teacher, Filippo Lippi. The initial inspiration for the painting came from the latter’s famous Madonna in the Uffizi. Botticelli replaced the landscape with an arched architecture which frames the heads of the mother and child and emphasizes the two main figures as the centre of the devotional scene.