Madonna of the Rose Garden (Botticelli)

Last updated
Madonna of the Rose Garden
Madonna-del-roseto-Botticelli.jpg
Artist Sandro Botticelli
Year1469–1470
Mediumtempera on panel
Dimensions124 cm× 64 cm(49 in× 25 in)
Location Uffizi Gallery, Florence

The Madonna of the Rose Garden is a tempera painting on panel by the Italian Renaissance painter from Florence, Sandro Botticelli between 1469 and 1470. It is one of his earliest paintings and is now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.

Contents

History

The work was in the Chamber of Commerce of Florence which leads to the hypothesis that like Botticelli's earlier painting, the Madonna della loggia , it had been commissioned either by the Wool Guild or the Tribunale della Mercanzia.

Wilhelm von Bode was the first to date the work to the artist's juvenile phase, in particular to the period of Verrocchio, 1469–1470, which has since been confirmed by other scholars.

Description and style

Verrocchio's Putto con delfino Putto col delfino di verrocchio 02.JPG
Verrocchio's Putto con delfino

The painting measures 124 cm × 64 cm (49 in × 25 in). It depicts the Virgin Mary, with a pensive attitude, holding the Christ Child on her knees beneath a loggia with columns supporting a semicircular arch with a coffered ceiling, framing the head of the Virgin and following the curved profile of the board. Behind Mary extends a garden with its pink roses dominating the foreground. Below her is a floor with framed marble tiles which demonstrates the painter's mastery of perspective technique.

The roses symbolize one of the titles of Mary, "Mystical Rose". The pomegranate, which Mary holds in her hand and which the Child is tasting, symbolizes fertility, royalty, and with its red color, the blood of the Passion of Jesus.

The work shows incisive use of chiaroscuro reminiscent of Verrocchio, in whose workshop Botticelli may have trained. The same type of child, with a large oval head and joyful lively expression, can be seen in Verrocchio's sculpture Putto con delfino from the same period. The figure of Mary is elongated and loosely posed, much more so than in the works of Filippo Lippi, another of the young Botticelli's models.

There are some uncertainties in space such as the disproportion of the architectural background which is too small compared to the figure of Mary and also compared to the flowers in the garden behind her.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uffizi</span> Art museum in Florence, Italy

The Uffizi Gallery is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of the largest and best-known in the world and holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandro Botticelli</span> Italian Renaissance painter (1445–1510)

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli or simply Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century, when he was rediscovered by the Pre-Raphaelites who stimulated a reappraisal of his work. Since then, his paintings have been seen to represent the linear grace of late Italian Gothic and some Early Renaissance painting, even though they date from the latter half of the Italian Renaissance period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Filippino Lippi</span> Italian painter (1457–1504)

Filippino Lippi was an Italian Renaissance painter mostly working in Florence, Italy during the later years of the Early Renaissance and first few years of the High Renaissance. He also worked in Rome for a period from 1488, and later in the Milan area and Bologna.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Filippo Lippi</span> Italian Renaissance painter (c. 1406–1469)

Filippo Lippi, also known as Lippo Lippi, was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Quattrocento and a Carmelite priest. He was an early Renaissance master of a painting workshop, who taught many painters. Sandro Botticelli and Francesco di Pesello were among his most distinguished pupils. His son, Filippino Lippi, also studied under him and assisted in some late works.

<i>Madonna of the Pomegranate</i> Painting by Sandro Botticelli

The Madonna of the Pomegranate was painted in circa 1487 with tempera on a wood panel by Sandro Botticelli. It is now in the Uffizi in Florence. Sandro Botticelli was a leading Italian Renaissance artist from Florence, Italy. The Madonna (art) uses the circular format, better known as a tondo, which focuses the attention on the main characters, the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus, who are surrounded symmetrically by angels on each side. Botticelli's use of tempera grassa give the characters a real look, better known as a "naturalistic" style, which is common during the Renaissance. The Virgin Mary is holding baby Jesus gently in her arms while holding a pomegranate in her left hand.

<i>Madonna of the Book</i> Painting by Sandro Botticelli

The Madonna of the Book, or the Madonna del Libro, is a small painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli, and is preserved in the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan. The painting is executed in tempera on panel. It dates from between 1480 and 1481.

<i>Tondo</i> (art) Renaissance term for a circular work of art

A tondo is a Renaissance term for a circular work of art, either a painting or a sculpture. The word derives from the Italian rotondo, "round". The term is usually not used in English for small round paintings, but only those over about 60 cm in diameter, thus excluding many round portrait miniatures – for sculpture the threshold is rather lower.

<i>Madonna in Glory with Seraphim</i> (Botticelli) Painting by Sandro Botticelli

Madonna in Glory with Seraphim is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, executed c. 1469–1470. It is housed in Galleria degli Uffizi.

<i>Virgin and Child with Two Angels</i> (Botticelli, Naples) Painting by Sandro Botticelli

The Virgin and Child with Two Angels is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli, dating to c. 1468–1469. It is in the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, in Naples.

The decade of the 1460s in art involved some significant events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Themes in Italian Renaissance painting</span>

This article about the development of themes in Italian Renaissance painting is an extension to the article Italian Renaissance painting, for which it provides additional pictures with commentary. The works encompassed are from Giotto in the early 14th century to Michelangelo's Last Judgement of the 1530s.

<i>Madonna of the Magnificat</i> Painting by Sandro Botticelli

The Madonna of the Magnificat, is a painting of circular or tondo form by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. It is also referred to as the Virgin and Child with Five Angels. In the tondo, we see the Virgin Mary writing the Magnificat with her right hand, with a pomegranate in her left, as two angels crown her with the Christ child on her lap. It is now in the galleries of the Uffizi, in Florence.

<i>Adoration of the Magi</i> (Botticelli, 1475) Painting by Sandro Botticelli

The Adoration of the Magi is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli. Botticelli painted this piece for the altar in Gaspare di Zanobi del Lama's chapel in Santa Maria Novella around 1475. This painting depicts the Biblical story of the Three Magi following a star to find the newborn Jesus. The image of the altarpiece centers on the Virgin Mary and the newborn Jesus, with Saint Joseph behind them. Before them are the three kings who are described in the New Testament story of the Adoration of the Magi. The three kings worship the Christ Child and present him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. In addition, the Holy Family is surrounded by a group of people who came to see the child who was said to be the son of God.

<i>SantAmbrogio Altarpiece</i> (Botticelli) Painting by Sandro Botticelli

The Madonna and Child with Six Saints, also known as Sant'Ambrogio Altarpiece, is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli, finished around 1470. It is housed in the Galleria degli Uffizi, in Florence.

<i>Madonna della Loggia</i> (Botticelli) Painting by Sandro Botticelli

The Madonna della Loggia is a painting attributed to the Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli, dating to c. 1467. A tempera on panel work, it is located in the loggia of the Uffizi, Florence, Italy.

<i>Virgin and Child with the Infant St. John the Baptist</i> (Botticelli) Painting by Sandro Botticelli

The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist is a tempera painting on wood executed by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli and his studio. The tondo, painted in Florence between the years of 1490 and 1500, addresses a central theme of the Italian Renaissance art: the divine motherhood. The work is now in the São Paulo Museum of Art.

<i>Virgin and Child with an Angel</i> (Botticelli, Florence) Painting by Sandro Botticelli

The Madonna and Child with an Angel is a painting executed c. 1465–1467 by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. It is housed in Spedale degli Innocenti of Florence.

<i>Virgin and Child with Two Angels</i> (Verrocchio) Painting by Andrea del Verrocchio

The Virgin and Child with Two Angels is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Andrea del Verrocchio, dating from circa 1467–1469. It is in the National Gallery, London, United Kingdom.

<i>Virgin and Child with an Angel</i> (Botticelli, Boston) Painting by Sandro Botticelli

Virgin and Child with an Angel also known as Our Lady of the Eucharist is a painting in tempera on wood panel by Sandro Botticelli, executed in c. 1470. It is now held by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, having been acquired from Prince Chigi in 1899. The painting measures 85.2 × 65 centimetres (33.5 × 25.6 in) and is one of a series of paintings of the Madonna produced by Botticelli between 1465 and 1470. It shows influences from Filippo Lippi's Virgin and Child with Two Angels of c. 1465 in the Uffizi.

<i>Bardi Madonna</i> Painting by Sandro Botticelli

The Bardi Madonna or Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist is a 1480s tempera-on-panel painting by Sandro Botticelli, now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Its primary name derives from the rich Florentine banker Agnolo Bardi, who commissioned it for his family chapel at the Santo Spirito Basilica in Florence. It was completed around the end of 1485.

References

    Sources