Adoration of the Child with Saints

Filippo Lippi's Adoration of the Child with Saints, painted around 1455 and now in the Palazzo Pretorio Museum, Prato, is a devotional altarpiece from his years in Prato. The Adoration of the Child, showing the Virgin kneeling in worship before the newborn infant, was a devotional type popularized by the mystical visions of Saint Bridget of Sweden and adopted widely by 15th-century Italian painters. Lippi's treatment brings characteristic tenderness to the scene.

Lippi renders the Adoration with his mature technique, using soft modeling, luminous color, and the elegant linear drawing that characterizes his Prato-period works, with a forest or garden setting creating an intimate devotional atmosphere.