Imitator of Fra Filippo Lippi, 'The Virgin and Child with an Angel', about 1480

The Virgin and Child with an Angel

Imitator of Fra Filippo Lippi

Not on display

About the work

Overview

The design of this tender image of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child and an angel is derived from a picture by Fra Filippo Lippi, the Florentine painter and monk. It was a popular composition in Florence and there are numerous versions of it by different artists. The semi-transparent veil with its rippling folds is particularly similar to Lippi’s version, as are the thick blond waves of Christ’s hair.

A vaulted arch frames both the figures in the foreground and the landscape in the background. Its ceiling is is made up of sunken square panels, a form of decoration found in many classical buildings. It was revived in the Renaissance for church architecture and so it would have been familiar to worshippers.

Pictures like this, which stressed the Virgin’s maternal bond with the infant Christ, were popular for private worship in the home.

In-depth

The design of this tender image of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child and an angel is derived from a painting by Fra Filippo Lippi, the Florentine painter and monk. It was obviously a popular composition in Florence in the mid-fifteenth century as there are numerous versions of it by different artists. It was also used by Botticelli, Lippi’s pupil, in a painting now in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples and by his contemporary Verrocchio in a picture in our collection.

We cannot identify the artist but he follows Lippi’s style as well as his design closely: the semi-transparent veil with its rippling folds is particularly similar to Lippi’s version, as are the thick blond waves of Christ’s hair. The profile and positioning of Christ and the angel – and his mauve draperies – are very close to Botticelli’s version of the subject.

As in Verrocchio’s version, the architecture is an important feature of this work and the painter has taken care to ensure it is convincingly three-dimensional. If you look closely at the picture in raking light, you can see where he has incised guidelines to ensure that all the angles and straight lines are painted accurately. A deep archway known as a barrel vault frames the figures in the foreground and the landscape in the background. Its ceiling is coffered, meaning it is made up of sunken square panels – a form of decoration found in many classical buildings. It was revived in the Renaissance for church architecture and so would have been familiar to worshippers.

The overall effect of the image is delicate and gentle – the colours are limited to soft pastels, the fabrics are edged with gold detail and the haloes are created from tiny dots of gold. Pictures like this, which stressed the Virgin’s maternal bond with the infant Christ, were popular for private worship in the home.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Virgin and Child with an Angel
Artist: Imitator of Fra Filippo Lippi
Artist dates: born about 1406; died 1469
Date made: about 1480
Medium and support: egg tempera on wood
Dimensions: 69.9 × 48.3 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1857
Inventory number: NG589
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection

Provenance

On the back is a seal of export from Italy, and another seal with the words Roma Terra and Lettere round an umbrella. From Sig. Zambrini of Imola. Purchased with other pictures from Lombardi and Baldi, Florence, 1857.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2009

Botticelli.

Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie

13 November 2009 - 28 February 2010

Bibliography

1864

J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A New History of Painting in Italy: From the Second to the Sixteenth Century, 3 vols, London 1864
1893

H.C. Ulmann, Sandro Botticelli, Munich 1893
1923

R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, 19 vols, The Hague 1923
1925

Y. Yashiro, Sandro Botticelli, London 1925
1932

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works, with an Index of Places, Oxford 1932
1938

J. Mesnil, Botticelli, Paris 1938
1951

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
1958

R. Salvini, Tutta la pittura del Botticelli, Milan 1958
1961

M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
1967

G. Mandel, The Complete Paintings of Botticelli, New York 1967
1978

R. Lightbown, Sandro Botticelli, London 1978
1986

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
1988

J. Mills and R. White, 'Analyses of Paint Media', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XII, 1988, pp. 78-9
1988

National Gallery, 'Pictures Cleaned and Restored in the Conservation Department of the National Gallery, 1987', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XII, 1988
1990

C. Caneva, Botticelli: Catalogo completo dei dipinti, Florence 1990
1991

J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
1991

D. Thiébaut, Botticelli, Paris 1991
1993

E. Moench, Les primitifs italiens du musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg, Strasbourg 1993
1995

A. Thomas, The Painter's Practice in Renaissance Tuscany, Cambridge 1995
1996

J. Dunkerton and A. Roy, 'The Materials of a Group of Late Fifteenth-Century Florentine Panel Paintings', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XVII, 1996, pp. 20-31
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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You've viewed 6 of 14 works

Imitator of Fra Filippo Lippi, 'The Virgin and Child with an Angel', about 1480

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Exhibition history

Bibliography

About this record

Images

Related works