Maria mit dem Kinde und zwei Engeln

Francesco Francia painted this Madonna and Child with Two Angels around 1495 in Bologna. Francia's angelic attendants add a celestial dimension to the intimate devotional subject. His luminous palette and gentle compositions made his Madonna paintings among the most admired devotional images in Emilia-Romagna. This work belongs to the High Renaissance, when the innovations of the preceding century were synthesized into works of monumental clarity and ideal beauty. The period's defining aesthetic — balanced composition, idealized figures, unified atmospheric space — was developed above all in Florence and Rome before spreading across Italy and Europe.

Oil on panel with Francia's characteristic golden luminosity and serene composition. The angelic attendants flanking the Madonna and Child are rendered with the devotional sweetness typical of his mature work.