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

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.