This sublime and elegant Florentine Renaissance panel depicts the Madonna and Child with the young Saint John Baptist in an original interpretation of this most traditional subject. The Madonna, using both hands, presents the naked infant Jesus – himself partially wrapped in a white shroud – to his cousin, St John the Baptist, who is seen in profile from behind as he kneels somewhat hesitantly to receive a blessing. The Virgin, whose almost monumental scale is softened by her stooping posture, bends in encouragement of the Christ Child’s merciful blessing of the young St John. Between them, a fountain or well-head with an elegantly curved profile takes on a polysemic symbolism, perhaps alluding to the true water which quenches thirst forever or to the baptismal font, whilst to the left, a humble hut covered with straw, grafted onto a semi-ruined building made of large stones, recalls the popular imagery in 15th-century depictions of the Nativity. The figures are silhouetted – thanks to the low horizon line – against a seemingly endless landscape characterised by rolling hills and an ethereal blue sky, which serves to intensify the intimacy of their interaction.

This panel was recently published, following first-hand inspection and in-depth study, by Andrea de Marchi as an early painting by Filippino Lippi, executed during his time in Botticelli’s workshop, heavily influenced by Botticelli himself and probably based on one of his designs. Keith Christiansen, having viewed the work first-hand, and Laurence Kanter, on the basis of photographs, also endorse this attribution.