Madonna and Child with Five Angels

This Madonna and Child with Five Angels at the Louvre demonstrates the devotional painting production that was central to Botticelli's workshop throughout his career. The attendant angels create a celestial context for the intimate Mother-Child relationship at the composition's center The Madonna and Child was the most ubiquitous devotional subject of medieval and Renaissance art, present in every church and many private homes as a focus for prayer and spiritual contemplation.

The angels frame the Madonna group with flowing linear forms, their graceful postures and billowing draperies demonstrating Botticelli's supreme ability to create rhythmic compositions of sustained elegance.