Virgin and Child with an Angel (Botticelli)

detail

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

The Virgin Mary is shown in a three quarter view, with the Baby Jesus 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

Sandro Botticelli
Secular	Fortitude Primavera Pallas and the Centaur Venus and Mars The Birth of Venus Calumny of Apelles Divine Comedy Illustrated by Botticelli (manuscript) The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti 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 Adoration of the Magi (Uffizi) St. Sebastian Saint Augustine in His Study (Ognissanti) Sistine Chapel: Temptations of Christ, Youth of Moses and Punishment of the Sons of Corah Cestello Annunciation Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Munich) Saint Augustine in His Study (Uffizi) Holy Trinity (Pala delle Convertite) Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Milan) The Last Communion of Saint Jerome The Mystical Nativity Scenes from the Life of Saint Zenobius
Madonnas	Madonna and Child with an Angel Madonna della Loggia Madonna and Child Madonna in Glory with Seraphim Madonna of the Rosegarden (Madonna del Roseto) Madonna and Child and Two Angels Virgin and Child with an Angel Madonna of the Magnificat (Madonna del Magnificat) Madonna of the Book (Madonna del Libro) Madonna of the Pomegranate (Madonna della Melagrana) Madonna Adoring the Child with Five Angels Virgin and Child with the Infant St. John the Baptist The Virgin and Child with Three Angels (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 (Palazzo Pitti)
Related	Botticelli Inferno (2016 documentary)

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