Madonna and Child with Infant St John the Baptist

The encounter between the Christ Child and the infant St. John during the Holy Family’s return from Egypt was a popular theme in Florentine painting, undoubtedly because the Baptist was the patron saint of Florence.

In Bugiardini’s carefully articulated circular composition, St. John receives Christ’s blessing and reaches out to touch him in a dynamic gesture that intimately links the two cousins. Christ’s Passion is prefigured by John’s little reed cross and the inscription on its banner: Ecce Agnus Dei (Behold the Lamb of God).