Madonna and Child with Infant Saint John the Baptist, Angels Circling Above

Filippino Lippi painted this Madonna and Child with Infant Saint John and Angels around 1502 in Florence. Filippino was one of the leading Florentine painters of his generation, son of Fra Filippo Lippi and trained by Botticelli. His late style shows increasing nervousness and decorative complexity. The oil medium allowed for rich tonal transitions and glazed layers of color that created luminous depth impossible with the older tempera technique. Such devotional panels served both liturgical contexts in churches and chapels and private devotional use in the homes of wealthy families who maintained personal altars and oratories.

Oil on panel with Filippino's characteristic restless line and decorative richness. The circling angels and animated draperies create the dynamic, almost agitated quality of his late devotional works.