Madonna delle Grazie

The Madonna delle Grazie (Our Lady of Graces) from circa 1470 is an early devotional work reflecting the enormous Florentine demand for domestic Madonna paintings. Such images served as the focal points of family devotion in Renaissance homes, combining sacred purpose with aesthetic beauty 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 early Madonna demonstrates Botticelli's developing linear style, the Virgin's features and the Child's form rendered with the refined contour drawing that would become his artistic signature.