After Benozzo Gozzoli, 'The Virgin and Child Enthroned with Angels', 1460s

This painting is based on the main panel of an altarpiece made by Gozzoli for the Confraternity of the Purification of the Virgin and of Saint Zenobius in Florence. It was probably made shortly afterwards by a member of the artist’s workshop.

As in Gozzoli’s original picture, the Virgin Mary and Christ Child are seated on a throne surrounded by angels, each holding a lily stem, a symbol of purity. But the two angels seated on the throne’s steps are additions and resemble the lute-playing angels in the central panel of an altarpiece Masaccio made for Santa Maria del Carmine, Pisa.

Another difference is the background: the area behind the high back of the throne is gilded and then patterned using a metal tool to create decorative indentations in the soft gold leaf. This would have been simpler and faster than painting a landscape. The grassy foreground and the vase of flowers represent a garden, which is significant – the ‘enclosed garden’ was a sign of the Virgin’s purity.

The Virgin’s halo is inscribed, ‘AVE. MARIS. STELLA. DEI. MATE(R)’ (‘Hail Star of the Sea. Mother of God’), as is Christ’s: PAX. VOBIS (‘Peace be with you’). The words spoken to Mary by the Angel Gabriel at the Annunciation (Luke 1:28) appear on the haloes of the angels: AVE. (MARIA) GRAZIA. PLENA (‘Hail Mary, full of Grace’).