Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist

Description This "tondo" (round painting) depicts the "Virgo lactans," the Latin term for the nursing Virgin Mary. The image testifies to the humanity of Christ as it shows that he consumed food like all other humans. Mary is seated on the ground--in this pose, she is known as the Madonna of Humility. The young Saint John the Baptist, Jesus' second cousin, gazes reverently at Christ. John the Baptist was the patron saint of Florence, and the painting comes from the Florentine artist Sandro Botticelli's workshop, suggesting the tondo was painted for a patron from that city. A "tondo" was not used as an altarpiece and could be hung in a private home.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
12/31/1969	Examination	examined for condition
1/01/1900	Examination	examined for condition
3/01/1946	Treatment	loss compensation; other; varnish removed or reduced
1/07/1958	Examination	examined for condition
4/27/1959	Treatment	coated; examined for condition; inpainted; surface cleaned

Provenance Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1897 catalogue: no. 31, as Botticelli]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902