The Madonna is seated, looking downward to the standing Child with a landscape view in the background seen through a simple arch.
The design is one which is known in several workshop replicas and the type of the Virgin's head seems to reflect a lost Botticelli of about the years 1485-1490. Though not by any pupil of Botticelli's who can be identified, the picture is a remarkably fresh and attractive example of Tuscan painting in the later 15th century and was once owned by John Ruskin, a great admirer of Botticelli.
Provenance
Collection of John Ruskin.