The Virgin Adoring the Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist

Jacopo di Arcangelo (called Jacopo del Sellaio)

late 1480s · Tempera and gold on wood · European Paintings

According to the biographer Giorgio Vasari, Sellaio was a pupil of Filippo Lippi, and several features of the present painting, such as the rays surrounding the Christ Child, are also common to Lippi's paintings of the same subject. The tree stumps in the landscape are a reference to Matthew 3:10 ("And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."). The painting dates from the late 1480s.

Artist

Jacopo di Arcangelo (called Jacopo del Sellaio)

Date

late 1480s

Medium

Tempera and gold on wood

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Gift of George Blumenthal, 1941