BOTTICELLI, Sandro
(b. 1445, Firenze, d. 1510, Firenze)

Virgin and Child with Two Angels

c. 1490
Tempera on poplar panel, diameter 115 cm
Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna

In the fifteenth century the tondo format was preferred for pictures for private devotion in the city of Florence. From the mid-century onward tondi painted on wood gradually ousted the earlier reliefs. the genre reached its apex in the 1480s with Botticelli's harmoniously elegant compositions. The tondo in Vienna was probably made with the assistance of Botticelli's populous workshop.