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A woman kneels, angled to our left, and tips her face down toward a naked baby propped on a pillow against a pile of hay in a shed-like structure in this round painting. The woman and baby have pale skin, blond hair, and their heads are surrounded with gold halos. The woman’s arms cross her chest as she looks down, her eyes nearly closed. She has high cheekbones, a narrow chin, a long, straight nose, and her pale lips are closed. Her long hair tucks under the neck of her aquamarine-blue cloak, which covers her coral-red dress. The dress and robe pool around her legs and under the baby, near her knees to our left. The baby has rounded cheeks and his belly and legs are pudgy. His hands and arms stretch up to the woman and his head is tilted dramatically back to look up at her. One foot, farther from us, kicks out and the other knee is bent. The woman and baby are on a grassy area supported and framed by concrete-gray blocks, over an arched doorway below. The stone blocks also enclose an area housing a donkey and ox to our left. There is a thatched roof above and a landscape with rolling hills and a river beyond.

Sandro Botticelli

The Virgin Adoring the Child, 1480/1490

Not on View

Medium

tempera on poplar panel

Dimensions

overall (diameter): 58.9 cm (23 3/16 in.)

framed: 82.2 x 6.4 cm (32 3/8 x 2 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1952.2.4

Artists / Makers

Sandro Botticelli (painter) Florentine, 1446 - 1510

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Provenance

Charles Paravey [d. by 1878], Paris; (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 13 April 1878, no. 97, as by Filippo Lippi, probably bought in); probably by inheritance to Paravey's daughter, Mme Raynaud, Paris. (sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 16 December 1929, no. 44, as by Filippo Lippi); (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York); sold October 1947 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[1] gift 1952 to NGA.

[1] The invoice from Wildenstein & Co. to the Kress Foundation (copy in NGA curatorial files) is dated 30 October 1947. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2331.

Associated Names

Drouot, Hôtel
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Paravey, Charles
Raynaud, Mme
Wildenstein & Co., Inc.

Exhibition History

1933: A Century of Progress. Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, June-November 1933, no. 109, as Nativity.

1933: Five Centuries of European Painting, Los Angeles Museum of Art, November-December 1933, no. 3, repro., as The Nativity.

1933: Italian Paintings of the XIV to XVI Century, Detroit Institute of Arts, March 1933, no. 24, as Madonna Adoring the Child.

1935: Exhibition of Italian Paintings of the Renaissance, The Century Association, New York, 1935, no. 2, as Madonna Adoring the Child.

1939: Masterpieces of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300-1800, New York World's Fair, 1939, no. 21, repro., as The Madonna Adoring the Child.

1941: Masterpieces of Art from European and American Collections, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1941, no. 4, repro., as Madonna Adoring the Child.

1947: Italian Paintings, Wildenstein & Co., New York, 1947, no. 16, repro., as Adoration of the Child.

Bibliography

1911: Mireur, Hippolyte. Dictionnaire des ventes d’art faites en France et à l’étranger pendant les XVIIIme & XIXme siècles. 7 vols. Paris, 1902-1912: 4(1911):344.

1923: Marle, Raimond van. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, 19 vols. The Hague, 1923-1938: 12 (1931):171.

1930: Mayer, August. L. “Ein unbekanntes tondo von Botticelli.” Pantheon 6 (September 1930): 393-394, repro.

1933: Valentiner, William R. “Die Leihausstellung frühitalianischer Malerei in Detroit.” Pantheon 12 (1933): 238.

1933: Venturi, Lionello. Italian Paintings in America, 3 vols. New York and Milan, 1938:2: pl. 246.

1935: Frankfurter, Alfred M. “Italian Paintings in Loan Display at Century Club.” Art News 33, no. 23 (1935): 11.

1938: Mesnil, Jacques. Botticelli. Paris, 1938: 225.

1951: Comstock, Helen. “Additions to the Kress Collection.” Connoisseur 127 (September 1951): 66.

1951: Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 49.

1951: Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 52, no. 14, repro.

1954: Ferguson, George. Signs and Symbols in Christian Art. New York, 1954: fig. 46.

1956: De Tolnay, Charles. “Remarques sur la Saint Anne de Léonard.” Revue de l’art 6 (1956): 163.

1958: Salvini, Roberto. Tutta la pittura del Botticelli, 2 vols. Milan, 1958: 2:22, 50, pl. 60.

1959: Friedmann, Herbert. “Two Paintings by Botticelli in the Kress Collection.” In Studies in the History of Art Dedicated to William E. Suida, Washington, DC, 1959: 120-123, repro.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 69, repro.

1963: Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Florentine School, 2 vols. London, 1963: 1:38.

1965: Salvini, Roberto. All the Paintings of Botticelli, 4 vols. New York, 1965: 3:137, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 17.

1966: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 122, fig. 333.

1967: Mandel, Gabriel. The Complete Paintings of Botticelli. Milan and New York, 1967: 104, cat. 124, repro.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 10, repro.

1972: Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 34.

1974: Fahy, Everett. “Review. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools XII-XV Century by Fern Rusk Shapley; Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools XV-XVI Century by Fern Rusk Shapley; Early Italian Paintings in the Yale University Art Gallery by Charles Seymour; Italian Primitives: The Case History of a Collection and its Conservation by Charles Seymour.” Art Bulletin, vol. 56, no. 2 (1974): 285, fig. 2, as by Jacopo del Sellaio.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 38, repro.

1978: Brigstocke, Hugh. Italian and Spanish Paintings in the National Gallery of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1978: 22.

1978: Lightbown, Ronald. Botticelli: Life and Work. 2 vols. Berkeley, CA, 1978: 1:117, pl. 41. 2:79, cat. B68.

1979: Morse, John D. Old Master Paintings in North America: Over 3000 Masterpieces by 50 Great Artists. New York, 1979: 28.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:85-86; 2:pl. 57, as Circle of Botticelli, possibly Jacopo del Sellaio.

1980: De Angelis, Rita. Botticelli: Every Painting. Milan and New York, 1980: cat. 120.

1980: Ragghianti, Carlo L. “Galleria di Washington.” Critica d’Arte 45, nos. 154-156 (1980): 218-219, as Workshop of Botticelli.

1981: Rowlands, Eliot W. “Review of Fern Rusk Shapley. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings 1979.” Apollo 144, no. 237 (November 1981): 353, as "very plausibl[y]" by Jacopo del Sellaio.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 97, no. 60, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 56, repro.

1988: Baldini, Umberto. Botticelli. Florence, 1988: 299.

1988: Kecks, Ronald G. Madonna und Kind. Das häusliche Andachtsbild im Florenz des 15. Jahrhunderts. Berlin, 1988: 47, 72, 126, fig. 155.

1988: Landolfi, Gemma. “Il Maestro della Natività Johnson.” In Gigetta Dalli Reogli, ed. Il ‘Maestro di San Miniato’: Lo stato degli studi, i problemi, le risposte della filologia. Pisa, 1988: 247.

1989: Lightbown, Ronald. Botticelli: Life and Work. Milan, 1989: 216-218, pl. 87.

1989: Pons, Nicoletta. Botticelli: catalogo completo. Milan, 1989: 81, cat. 100, repro.

1990: Caneva, Caterina. Botticelli: catalogo completo dei dipinti. Florence, 1990: 104, cat. 49, repro.

1992: Petrioli Tofani, Annamaria, ed. Il disegno fiorentino del tempo di Lorenzo il Magnifico. Exh. cat. Florence, 1992: 280.

1992: Pons, Nicoletta. “Una bottega fiorentina di pittura nella seconda metà del XV secolo: Jacopo del Sellaio e compagni.” Ph.D. diss. Università degli studi di Roma “La Sapienza," 1992: 389 as Workshop of Botticelli.

1992: Testi Cristiani, Maria Laura. Botticelli. Paris, 1992: 76, 95, pls. 54, 55.

1993: Brigstocke, Hugh. Italian and Spanish Paintings in the National Gallery of Scotland. 3rd ed. Edinburgh, 1993: 40.

1993: Deimling, Barbara. Sandro Botticelli 1444/45-1510. Cologne, 1993: 68, repro.

1993: Gagliardi, Jacques. La conquête de la peinture: L’Europe des ateliers du XIIIe au XVe siècle. Paris, 1993: 633.

2000: Olson, Roberta J. M. The Florentine Tondo. Oxford, 2000: 167, 253 note 53, fig. A18, as Workshop of Botticelli, possibly with Jacopo del Sellaio.

2003: Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 157-161, color repro.

2005: Zöllner, Frank. Botticelli. Munich, London, and New York, 2005: 238, cat. 60, repro.

2006: Körner, Hans. Botticelli. Cologne, 2006: 368, fig. 302.

2006: Venturini, Lisa. “Pro uno tondo Virginis Mariae. Riflessioni su forma, destinazione, iconografia nei tondi fiorentini: il caso di Botticelli.” In Davide Gasparotto and Antonella Gigli, eds. Il tondo di Botticelli a Piacenza. Milan, 2006: 37.

2009: Acidini, Cristina, William Dello Russo, and Federico Poletti. Botticelli nel suo tempo. Milan, 2009: 94, 146, 277, repro.

2010: Dumbrowski, Damian. Die religiösen Gemälde Sandro Botticellis: Malerei als pia philosophia. Berlin and Munich, 2010: 206-208, fig. 105.

2012: Humfrey, Peter. Glasgow Museums. The Italian Paintings. Glasgow, 2012: 50.

2020: De Marchi, Andrea. “Il 'Maestro dall’occhio vispo': curiosità insaziabile, generosità e passione nel metodo di un conoscitore anomalo.” In Everett Fahy. Studi sulla pittura toscana del Rinascimento. Studies in Tuscan Renaissance Painting. Scritti scelti. Ed. Andrea de Marchi and Elisabetta Sambo. Bologna, 2020: XV, as by Botticelli, perhaps with a collaborator close to Jacopo del Sellaio in the landscape.

2022: Acidini, Cristina. Botticelli. Pisa, 2022: 193-194, repro.