Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie (20.1979)

appear in the painting in a similar composition; the differences are as follows: there is no
architectural setting, the Mother feeds the Child, St. John has no cross and the angel holds
the corporal instead of the book. But the London painting is not by Botticelli. At one stage,
on the basis of an inscription on the back, it was thought to be by Giuliano da Sangallo.
Recently M. Davies described it as by an anonymous artist of the Botticelli workshop14. It is
accepted as work of around 149015. There exist several poor copies of this composition which
prove its popularity and none of the authors writing have expressed any doubt that the
idea came from Botticelli himself. Perhaps there existed a now lost painting by the Master
presenting a similar scenę.

G. Fiocco, pointing out the relationship with the Madonna delia Melagrana, suggested for
the Chicago tondo a date as around 148716. As concern the Warsaw painting this date
seems a little late. The Florentine Madonna is distinguished by a flowing dynamie character,
particularly expressive in the figurę of Child, which marks a later stage in Botticelli's paint-
ing when he was going away from the maturę pondered type of composition17. Similar charac-
teristics are echoed in the London tondo. However the Warsaw painting is filled with tran-
quility and is static while the type of decoration and the character of the Virgin face still
recall the style of the Primavera. Even if the upper part of the Child is rendered as in the Ma-
donna delia Melagrana, the layout of the legs recalls the much earlier Raczyński Tondo.

An earlier dating of the tondo is suggested also by the flowers which appear behind the Ma-
donna, if we agree with Lightbown's observation: "The flowers and plants are brought up
into relief to inerease the sense of depth; this technicme which Botticelli greatly favoured be-
tween c. 1480 and 1485, he seems later to have abandoned"18. Furthemore an earlier dating
is indicated by the proportions of the Virgin, a smali head on a thin neck as Lightbown has
stated, was a eharacteristic of the artist only to the mid eighties19.

We can therefore accept, I believe, that the Warsaw tondo was painted after Botticelli's
return from Rome in 1482. At this stage he had great recognition in Florence. His workshop
received many commissions and the participation of his pupils was growing. Lightbown's re-
search brings evidence for his statement that Botticelli gave a free hand to his pupils at that
time to paint rectangular devotional paintings. It was different in the case of the tondos; he
used to design and to paint them with his own hand until his late years20. Only replicas and
variants were made by others and only later did this field pass to a large extent into the
hands of his pupils.

Translated by Jack Lohman

14. M. Davies, National Callery Catalogues, The Earlier Itaiian Schooh, London, 1961, p. 110—111, n. 275. The similarity
between the London and Warsaw tondos was noticed by .1. Miehalkowa in the Cracow exhibition catalogue (La pein-
lure ilalienne des XIVe et XVe siecles, op. cit., n. 53).

15. This date was suggested by Salvini, op.cit., II, p. 74—75; it was accepted by Davies, /.c., and by Lightbown, op.cit.,
II, p. 132, n. C30.

16. This date was also suggested by Salvini, op.cit., II, p. 73 and by Mandel, l.c.; Lightbown does not mention a date.

17. Lightbown, op. cit., II, p. 66 and I, p. 103.

18. Lightbown, op. cit., I, p. 103. (

19. Lightbown, l.c.

20. Lightbown, op.cit., I, p. 53—54; see also L. D. and H. S. Ettlingcr, Botticelli, London, 1976, p. 11.

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