Madonna and Child with Five Angels

Madonna and Child with Five Angels is an early panel by Sandro Botticelli, dating from the 1470s and belonging to the Department of Paintings of the Louvre. Its listed location is La Galerie du temps, where visitors can study a small, intimate devotional image of the Virgin and Child framed by angels.

Where to see it

The painting belongs to the Department of Paintings of the Louvre and came from the Campana collection. Its recorded location is La Galerie du temps, the Louvre's long gallery at the Louvre-Lens site. Works can be moved, lent or taken off view, so check the Louvre's official website for current display status before you plan your visit.

What to look for in person

The Madonna of Humility

Start with how Mary is seated. Instead of a throne, she rests on a cushion placed on the ground, a pose known as the Madonna of Humility, which emphasises her modesty. Notice the quiet tension in the figure: her body faces you directly, while her gaze turns off to the right. She supports the Child on her right knee. On a panel only 58 by 40 centimetres, this close grouping fills much of the surface, so it rewards stepping in for a careful look.

Five angels, lilies and a crown

Behind the Virgin and Child stand five angels. Look for the lily branches they hold, a familiar emblem of Mary's purity in Florentine painting. At the front left, find the angel dressed in red, who holds a crown, a motif commonly linked to Mary's role as Queen of Heaven. Then look for the pomegranate shown with the Virgin and Child; its many seeds were widely understood in Renaissance art as an allusion to the Passion and Resurrection. Notice how the angels form a backdrop that frames the central pair.

A young painter's changes, and later layers

This is an early work, painted in tempera on a poplar panel. Infrared and X-ray examination showed that Botticelli reworked the design considerably, altering the position of Mary's feet and the pose of the Child. Keep those areas in mind as you look. Be aware, too, that much of the surface carries extensive overpainting added after Botticelli's time, which is why specialists find the picture difficult to assess. What you see today is partly the artist's own work and partly later additions.

About the painting

Botticelli painted this Madonna and Child with Five Angels in the 1470s, around 1470, when he was still a young artist at the start of his independent career. It is executed in tempera on a poplar panel and measures 58 by 40 centimetres, a size suited to private devotion rather than a church altar. The subject is a gentle, close-up image: the Virgin sits low on a cushion in the Madonna of Humility type, holding the Christ Child, while five angels gather behind them carrying lily branches, and the angel in red at front left holds a crown. For a long time the panel was attributed to Filippo Lippi, Botticelli's teacher, which helps explain its character; the soft modelling and the composition reflect the workshop tradition in which Botticelli trained. Technical studies using infrared and X-rays later showed that the painter changed his mind during the work, revising the placement of Mary's feet and the pose of the Child. Assessing the panel is complicated by extensive overpainting from later periods, so the surface does not fully reflect its original state. The painting's modern history runs through Rome and Paris. It was part of the collection of Marquis Giampietro Campana in Rome, which the French government purchased in 1861, and it entered the Louvre in 1863. Today it is catalogued in the Louvre's Department of Paintings, with its location recorded as La Galerie du temps at the Louvre-Lens, where works from many periods are shown together in a single chronological space.

Key facts

Artist	Sandro Botticelli
Date	1470s
Size	58 × 40 cm
Medium	tempera, poplar panel
Collection	Campana collection / Department of Paintings of the Louvre

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