The Adoration of the Christ Child

This panel presents a number of compositional and symbolic peculiarities: St Joseph is represented in the background, visible in the middle through the door of the hut, grazing the ox and the donkey, usually depicted next to the Infant Jesus; angels playing long flutes take the place of the shepherds and Magi; the white bird on the beam of the roof (a dove?), perhaps an allusion to the Holy Spirit that descended to Mary. The Virgin’s usual blue cloak is adorned with the star of the Byzantine tradition and behind her hangs a humble saddle. The Infant St John has significantly handed the cross, symbol of the Passion, to the child, who, as was common in Tuscan painting, is lying on a sheet and a sack. The figure of the Madonna, like those of the angels, fits in perfectly with the curved edge of the panel, perhaps painted to celebrate a birth, as was customary at the time. Tradition and innovation are fused in this painting, of which there is another version in the Hermitage, considered by some the original and by others a replica of the tondo in the Galleria Borghese.