Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist

Botticelli painted this Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist around 1490, now at the Clark Art Institute — one of his accomplished late devotional compositions where the young Baptist's presence grounds the sacred scene in Florentine civic devotion. John the Baptist as Florence's patron saint appeared constantly in Florentine art, from Donatello's great bronze in the cathedral to countless private devotional panels. The young cousins' encounter — John gesturing toward the Christ Child in recognition and reverence — was an extracanonical subject particularly beloved in Florence, where it served as a devotional meditation on prophetic recognition of the divine. Botticelli's sinuous line and elegiac mood give even this conventional subject his signature quality of spiritual melancholy.

Tempera on panel with Botticelli's characteristic flowing contours and luminous coloring. The work demonstrates the artistic qualities characteristic of Sandro Botticelli's period.