Sandro Botticelli (Florence, 1444 or 1445 - 1510, Florence)
Virgin and Child with an Angel, 1470-1474
Tempera on panel , 85 x 64.5 cm (33 7/16 x 25 3/8 in.)
The vertical scene in Virgin and Child with an Angel painted in tempera on a rectangular panel focuses on three light-skinned figures: Mary the Mother of Christ, filling much of the right side of the painting; the baby Christ Child being held in Mary’s left arm, but facing away from her, toward our left; and an angel in the guise of an androgynous person standing on the left, facing right toward the Mother and Child and offering a basket of grapes with spears of wheat fanning out around the grapes. The three figures are grouped in front of a simple parapet through which a winding river and rolling hills can be glimpsed in the background. Even in her sitting position, facing three-fourths to the front, and shown from her knees upward, Mary is the largest, most dominant figure. Her radiant blue robe is open in the front, edged with very delicate gold lace-like edging, with the brown lining visible around the collar and wrists. She wears a closely gathered, high-bodiced, red undergarment with a rounded neckline. Her straw-colored hair is drawn up and back in a rounded loose coil, and a transparent white-toned veil covers her hair, face and shoulders. Her facial features are delicate, her lips closed, her fair eyebrows and lashes barely visible, her downward glance suggests she is in deep thought as her right hand fingers a sprig of wheat offered by the angle. As with all three figures a barely visible gold halo floats above her head. The chubby Christ Child rests in a sitting position against his left mother’s arm, his right hand raised with all five fingers separated and detailed, and his left hand, closed, resting against his mother’s left hand. His right shoulder, arm, and middle torso are covered by a loosely draped, light blue fabric leaving his bare legs, feet and right hand to move freely. His fair skin and hair, pudgy cheeks and body render his baby-like appearance. The cherubic angel standing on the left, visible from head to thigh, is dressed in a finely-draped chiffon-like fabric with gentle folds forming the bodice, and puffed capped sleeves giving way to slim fitted arms. A delicate blue and gold pointed collar fits closely at the neck. The angel’s slightly parted face seems serene, and is encircled by tight reddish-blond ringlets and a garland of dark leaves. The angel’s downward gaze seems to fix on the basket of red grapes and wheat held in their right hand.
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Object details
Accession number
P27w73
Primary Creator
Sandro Botticelli (Florence, 1444 or 1445 - 1510, Florence)
Full title
Virgin and Child with an Angel
Creation Date
1470-1474
Provenance
Collection of Prince Chigi, Rome, by 1892–1899.
Collection of the art dealers Colnaghi & Co., London, 1899.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from Colnaghi & Co., London, 24 June 1899 for £14,500 through Bernard Berenson (1865–1959), American art historian.
Marks
On the back of the panel are a variety of seals with the arms of Prince Chigi, Duke of Ariccia, probably from the 18th century.
Dimensions
85 x 64.5 cm (33 7/16 x 25 3/8 in.)
Display Media
Tempera on panel
Dimension Notes
Frame: 103.5 x 82.8 cm (40 3/4 x 32 5/8 in.)
Web Commentary
A vast number of paintings of the Virgin and Child were produced in Florence in the late 1400s to meet a new demand for devotional images on a domestic scale. Early in his career, Botticelli specialized in such works. While this painting possesses much of the calm prettiness expected from these Madonnas, it also contains unexpected elements of allegory. The angel, Virgin, and Christ Child all look down at a bowl of grapes studded with ears of grain. Grapes and wheat produce the wine and bread of the Eucharist, and allude to the blood and body of Christ’s sacrifice. The Virgin carefully selects some of the wheat, to signify that she accepts her child’s fate. The angled arcade adds further mystery: like a set of isolated doorways, the structure encloses the figures while it simultaneously frames the landscape beyond.
In 1899, Isabella Stewart Gardner discovered that the Prince Chigi in Rome was willing to sell his painting by Botticelli, so she cabled Bernard Berenson to ask if it was worth $30,000. He replied emphatically that it was not, but she was not discouraged. A few months later, the price had risen to $70,000 and Berenson was recommending its purchase! The acquisition stirred great controversy because the press believed that the painting had been illegally exported from Italy; the Prince Chigi was fined, but later cleared of impropriety. Popular interest on both sides of the Atlantic became so great that it was decided to exhibit the painting in London at Colnaghi before it was shipped to Boston.
Source: Alan Chong, "Virgin and Child with an Angel," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 58.
Permanent Gallery Location
Long Gallery
Bibliography
Ivan Lermolieff (Giovanni Morelli). Kunstkritische Studien über italienische Malerei; die Galerien Borghese und Doria Panfili in Rom (Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus, 1890), p. 106.Eugène Müntz. "A Propos de Botticelli." Gazette des Beaux Arts (Sept. 1898), pp. 177-87.P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. The Chigi Botticelli: Exhibited by kind permission of Mrs. John. L. Gardner. Exh. cat. (London: Colnaghi & Co., 1901).Ernst Steinmann. Botticelli (London, 1901), pp. 12, 14-15, fig. 13. N.N. "Two Pictures with a Past." The Nation 73 (5 Dec. 1901), pp. 432-433.G.W.C. "The Chigi Madonna by Botticelli" The Artist 33 (Jan. 1902), pp. 3-5.Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 23.Julia Mary Cartwright Ady. Sandro Botticelli. (London, 1903), pp. 21-23, ill.Salomon Reinach. Répertoire de peintures du moyen âge et de la renaissance (1280-1580) (Paris, 1905), p. 159.Wilhelm Bode. Sandro Botticelli (London, 1925), pp. 18, 22-24, 26, 30, 99, 105, 158.Philip Hendy. Catalogue of Exhibited Paintings and Drawings (Boston, 1931), pp. 63-65. Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 232, pl. 14.Morris Carter. "Mrs. Gardner & The Treasures of Fenway Court" in Alfred M. Frankfurter (ed.). The Gardner Collection (New York, 1946), p. 59.Sylvia Sprigge. Berenson, a Biography (Boston, 1960), pp. 183-85, 189.“Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 8, no. 44 (4 Jul. 1965), p. 2. “Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 9, no. 37 (15 May 1966), p. 2. (excerpting Sylvia Sprigge, pp. 138-85)“Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 9, no. 39 (29 May 1966), p. 2. (excerpting Sylvia Sprigge, p. 189)Everett P. Fahy. "Some Notes on the Stratonice Master." Paragone 17 (July 1966), pp. 23-24, pl. 18.George L. Stout. Treasures from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1969), pp.188-89.Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), p. 38. (as 1470-1474)Ronald Lightbown: Botticelli: Complete Catalogue, Vol. II (Berkeley, 1978), pp. 23-24, B9.Gabrielle Kopelman. "Second Thoughts." Fenway Court (1979), pp. 54-58, nos. 4-8.Herbert P. Horne. Botticelli: Painter of Florence (Princeton, 1980), pp. 35-37, 42.Rollin van N. Hadley. Museums Discovered: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1981), pp. 46-47.Rollin van N. Hadley (ed.). The Letters of Bernard Berenson and Isabella Stewart Gardner 1887-1924 (Boston, 1987), pp. 174-76, 179-80, 186, 192-93, 195, 217, 220, 231, 233-34, 236, 260-61, 263-64, 266, 270-75, 277, 279, 281, 292-93, 296, 403, 666. Erica E. Hirshler. "Mrs. Gardner's Rival: Susan Cornelia Warren and her Art Collection." Fenway Court (1988), p. 50.Ronald Lightbown. Sandro Botticelli: Life and Work (New York, 1989), p. 41, pl. 14.Annamaria Petrioli Tofani (ed.). Il Disegno Fiorentino del tempo di Lorenzo il Magnifico. Exh. cat. (Florence: Uffizi, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, 1992), p. 110-111, no. 4.13.George R. Goldner and Carmen C. Bambach. The Drawings of Filippino Lippi and His Circle. Exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997), p. 102-103, no. 6.Hilliard Goldfarb et al. Botticelli’s Witness: Changing Style in a Changing Florence. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1997), pp. 22, 30-31, no. 1. (as about 1472-1475) Alan Chong et al. (eds.) Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 2003), pp. 58-59. (as early 1470s)Dario Cimorelli et al. (eds.). Matteo Civitali e il suo Tempo: Pittori, scultori e orafi a Lucca nel tardo Quattrocento. Exh. cat. (Milan: Museo Nazionale di Villa Guinigi, 2004), p. 368.Pierluigi De Vecchi et al. (eds.) Botticelli and Filippino: Passion and Grace in Fifteenth-Century Painting. Exh. cat. (Paris: Musée du Luxembourg; Florence: Palazzo Strozzi, 2004), pp. 188-191, no. 25. (as about 1470-1472)Jeremy Howard. "Colnaghi, Bernard Berenson and Mrs. Gardner's first Botticelli" in Colnaghi. Colnaghi Past, Present, and Future: An Anthology (London, 2016), pp. 21-22, 25, fig. 3.Oliver Tostmann. "Bernard Berenson and America's Discovery of Sandro Botticelli" in Mark Evans et al. Botticelli Reimagined. Exh. cat. (London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 2016), pp. 108, 337.Ana Debenedetti. "The Virgin and Child with an Angel (Chigi Madonna)" in Mark Evans et al. Botticelli Reimagined. Exh. cat. (London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 2016), pp. 258-259, no. 109. Jeremy Howard. "Selling Botticelli to America: Colnaghi, Bernard Berenson and the Sale of the Madonna of the Eucharist to Isabella Stewart Gardner." Colnaghi Studies 4 (March 2019), pp. 136-167, ill. pp. 136, 141, fig. 4.Caroline Elam. Roger Fry and Italian Art (London: Ad Ilissum and The Burlington Magazine, 2019), p. 240, fig. 2.63.Amy Warburg. "L'Influsso Della: Sphaera Barbarica" in Maurizio Ghelardi (ed.). Astrologica: Saggi E Appunti 1908-1929. (Torino, 2019), p.341-43, fig. 90.Rights and reproductions
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Long Gallery
Commentary
A vast number of paintings of the Virgin and Child were produced in Florence in the late 1400s to meet a new demand for devotional images on a domestic scale. Early in his career, Botticelli specialized in such works. While this painting possesses much of the calm prettiness expected from these Madonnas, it also contains unexpected elements of allegory. The angel, Virgin, and Christ Child all look down at a bowl of grapes studded with ears of grain. Grapes and wheat produce the wine and bread of the Eucharist, and allude to the blood and body of Christ’s sacrifice. The Virgin carefully selects some of the wheat, to signify that she accepts her child’s fate. The angled arcade adds further mystery: like a set of isolated doorways, the structure encloses the figures while it simultaneously frames the landscape beyond.
In 1899, Isabella Stewart Gardner discovered that the Prince Chigi in Rome was willing to sell his painting by Botticelli, so she cabled Bernard Berenson to ask if it was worth $30,000. He replied emphatically that it was not, but she was not discouraged. A few months later, the price had risen to $70,000 and Berenson was recommending its purchase! The acquisition stirred great controversy because the press believed that the painting had been illegally exported from Italy; the Prince Chigi was fined, but later cleared of impropriety. Popular interest on both sides of the Atlantic became so great that it was decided to exhibit the painting in London at Colnaghi before it was shipped to Boston.
Source: Alan Chong, "Virgin and Child with an Angel," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 58.
In 1899, Isabella Stewart Gardner discovered that the Prince Chigi in Rome was willing to sell his painting by Botticelli, so she cabled Bernard Berenson to ask if it was worth $30,000. He replied emphatically that it was not, but she was not discouraged. A few months later, the price had risen to $70,000 and Berenson was recommending its purchase! The acquisition stirred great controversy because the press believed that the painting had been illegally exported from Italy; the Prince Chigi was fined, but later cleared of impropriety. Popular interest on both sides of the Atlantic became so great that it was decided to exhibit the painting in London at Colnaghi before it was shipped to Boston.
Source: Alan Chong, "Virgin and Child with an Angel," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 58.