Imitator of Fra Filippo Lippi, 'The Virgin and Child with an Angel', about 1480
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.
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
-
2009Botticelli.Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie13 November 2009 - 28 February 2010
Bibliography
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1864J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A New History of Painting in Italy: From the Second to the Sixteenth Century, 3 vols, London 1864
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1893H.C. Ulmann, Sandro Botticelli, Munich 1893
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1923R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, 19 vols, The Hague 1923
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1925Y. Yashiro, Sandro Botticelli, London 1925
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1932B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works, with an Index of Places, Oxford 1932
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1938J. Mesnil, Botticelli, Paris 1938
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1951Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
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1958R. Salvini, Tutta la pittura del Botticelli, Milan 1958
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1961M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
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1967G. Mandel, The Complete Paintings of Botticelli, New York 1967
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1978R. Lightbown, Sandro Botticelli, London 1978
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1986Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
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1988J. Mills and R. White, 'Analyses of Paint Media', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XII, 1988, pp. 78-9
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1988National Gallery, 'Pictures Cleaned and Restored in the Conservation Department of the National Gallery, 1987', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XII, 1988
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1990C. Caneva, Botticelli: Catalogo completo dei dipinti, Florence 1990
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1991J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
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1991D. Thiébaut, Botticelli, Paris 1991
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1993E. Moench, Les primitifs italiens du musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg, Strasbourg 1993
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1995A. Thomas, The Painter's Practice in Renaissance Tuscany, Cambridge 1995
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1996J. 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
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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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