Virgin and Child with an Angel (Botticelli, Boston)

Painting by Sandro Botticelli

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Virgin and Child with an Angel also known as Our Lady of the Eucharist (Italian: Madonna dell'Eucarestia) is a painting in tempera on wood panel by the Italian Renaissance master 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.

The Virgin Mary is shown in a three-quarter view, with the Christ Child held on her lap. A smiling angel, wearing a crown of myrtle, offers them a bowl containing twelve ears of wheat and grapes. The child raises a hand in benediction, and Mary holds one of the ears of corn.

The scene may be set in a walled garden or hortus conclusus, symbolic of Mary's virginity, with a landscape of hills and a river visible through an opening in the arcade around the wall. The wheat and grapes are symbolic of the bread and wine of the Eucharist, which themselves symbolise the body and blood of the incarnate Jesus, and the number of ears possibly refer to the number of the apostles at the Last Supper.

Prince Chigi first offered the painting to Isabella Stewart Gardner in 1899 for $30,000. She demurred initially, but by the time she decided to buy the price was $70,000. The sale was controversial in Italy, where there was press comment that the sale was illegal, and Prince Chigi was fined. The painting was exhibited at Colnaghi in London before being transported to Boston.

References

Virgin and Child with an Angel, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

v t e Sandro Botticelli
List of works
Secular	Fortitude Primavera Pallas and the Centaur Venus and Mars The Birth of Venus Calumny of Apelles Illustrations to the Divine Comedy The Story of Nastagio Degli Onesti, part one Venus and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman A Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts The Story of Virginia The Story of Lucretia
Religious	Sant'Ambrogio Altarpiece The Discovery of the Body of Holofernes The Return of Judith to Bethulia Adoration of the Magi (Florence) Saint Sebastian Life of Esther Saint Augustine in His Study (Florence: Ognissanti) Sistine Chapel: Temptations of Christ, Youth of Moses and Punishment of the Sons of Korah Cestello Annunciation Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Munich) Saint Augustine in His Study (Florence: Uffizi) Pala delle Convertite (Trinity) Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Milan) The Last Communion of Saint Jerome The Mystical Nativity Mystic Crucifixion Scenes from the Life of Saint Zenobius The Man of Sorrows
Madonnas	Virgin and Child with an Angel (Florence) Madonna della Loggia Madonna and Child (Avignon) Madonna delle Grazie Madonna in Glory with Seraphim Madonna of the Rose Garden Virgin and Child with Two Angels (Naples) Virgin and Child with Two Angels (Strasbourg) Virgin and Child with an Angel (Boston) Bardi Madonna Madonna of the Magnificat Madonna of the Book Madonna of the Pomegranate Madonna Adoring the Child with Five Angels Annunciation Glascow New York Virgin and Child with the Infant St. John the Baptist Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist Madonna del Padiglione
Portraits	Portrait of Smeralda Brandini Young Man (London) Portrait of a Man with a Medal of Cosimo the Elder Portrait of Giuliano de' Medici Young Man (Washington, D.C.) Young Woman (Frankfurt) Young Man (Florence) Portrait of a Young Man holding a Roundel
Related	Botticelli Inferno (2016 documentary) Botticelli (crater)

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