Alessandro Botticelli
The Adoration of the Christ Child

ArtistItalian (Florentine), 1444/5–1510
CultureItalian
Titles
  • The Adoration of the Christ Child
Datec. 1500
PlaceItaly
MediumOil on panel
DimensionsPanel: 47 1/2 in. diameter (120.7 cm)
Frame: 66 1/2 diameter × 3 3/4 in. (168.9 × 9.5 cm)
Credit LineSarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston
Object numberBF.1974.2
Current Location
The Audrey Jones Beck Building
203 Crane Gallery
Exposé

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Object Type
Description

At once narrative and symbolic, this elegant painting by Sandro Botticelli expands the conventional theme of the Adoration of the Christ Child. In the central scene, the gracefully arched bodies of Mary and Joseph echo the contours of the round picture format.


  The Virgin Mary kneels in veneration before the Christ Child, while Joseph sleeps. The infant lies stiffly on Mary’s cloak, parallel to the picture plane and presented to the devout viewer for adoration. Two shepherds at right approach to offer Christ a sacrificial lamb, and the Holy Family's subsequent Flight into Egypt is depicted in the background at left.


Botticelli oversaw an active workshop, producing hundreds of paintings—especially devotional images of the Virgin and Child—over the course of his career. Very few of Botticelli's paintings are signed or dated, and it is often difficult to determine his authorship. Some scholars attribute this work entirely to Botticelli, but it may have been executed in part by his assistants.


 


ProvenanceQuincy A. Shaw, Boston; [Duveen Brothers, New York, c. 1922–42]; Norton Simon Art Foundation, Pasadena, California; purchased by the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, 1974.
Exhibition History"Sacred Treasures: Early Italian Paintings from Southern Collections," Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, October 12, 2002–January 5, 2003; Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, January 26–April 2003; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, April–July 2003.

"Botticelli: Likeness, Myth, Devotion, " Städel Museum, Frankfurt, November 13, 2009–February 28, 2010.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
verso printed label: THE MINNEAPOLIS / INSTITUTE / OF ARTS / No. L68.2 / Lent / By / The Norton / Foundation

verso printed label [partially torn]: ES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART / Los Angeles, California / .69.60.19 / Cosimo, Piero di (Ital., 1462-c.1521) / ADORATION WITH ST> JOSEPH / Oil on panel (circular) / Norton Simon, Inc. Museum of Art / 471/2" diameter

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Saint Peter Sleeping (recto); Study for a Saint Luke, Seated, Reading (verso)
Workshop of Alessandro Botticelli
c. 1500
Pen and iron gall ink, and iron-based brown and red washes, heightened with lead white on laid paper
BF.1976.1.A,.B
Saint Christopher Carrying the Christ Child Through a Sinful World
Circle of Hieronymus Bosch
Early 16th century
Oil on panel
BF.1979.1
Worshippers at a Shrine in a Mountainous Landscape
Alessandro Magnasco
c. 1716-17
Oil on canvas
BF.1999.41
Scenes of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ
Attributed to Lambert Lombard
1541
Oil on double-sided panel
BF.1978.5
The Baptism of Christ
1520s
Oil on panel
BF.1978.2
Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist
Follower of Rosso Fiorentino
Probably c. 1520
Oil on panel
BF.1980.15
Madonna and Child with Saint Roch and a Donor
Master of the Sforza Altarpiece
c. 1495
Oil on panel
BF.1983.3
Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist
Pinturicchio
1492
Tempera and oil on panel
BF.1979.27
Madonna and Child with Saints Peter and Paul
Pietro degli Ingannati
1530s
Oil on panel
BF.1984.2
Madonna and Child Seated in a Landscape with Saint John the Baptist
Giuliano Bugiardini
c. 1517
Oil on panel
BF.1984.23
The Adoration of the Magi
Antonio Bellucci
Probably c. 1682
Oil on canvas
BF.1979.24
The Adoration of the Shepherds
Viviano Codazzi
c. 1638
Oil on canvas
BF.1982.4