Collection Online as of December 6, 2019
Madonna and Child
Francesco Botticini
(Italian, c. 1446-1497)
Tempera on poplar panel
Painted surface: 64.6 x 45 cm (25 7/16 x 17 11/16 in.); Panel: 67.2 x 46 cm (26 7/16 x 18 1/8 in.)
Holden Collection 1916.788
Location
117A Italian Renaissance
Description
Francesco di Giovanni Botticini came from a family of painters. His father, Giovanni di Domenico, and his son, Raffaello, were also painters. Little is known of his life or career. He is believed to have apprenticed under Neri de Bicci. The earliest dated altarpiece by his hand is 1471 (now in the Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris).
Francesco Botticini
He was the son of Giovanni di Domenico, a painter of playing cards, and the father of Raffaello Botticini (1477-1520, last recorded date). The documents call him Francesco di Giovanni. He probably is the painter who entered the studio of Neri di Bicci in October 1459. His eclectic painting follows in the tradition of his master, Neri di Bicci, and after the style of several of his contemporaries such as Cosimo Rosselli, Fra Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, and Verrocchio. The group of paintings ascribed to him is diversified enough and in some cases so vernacular as to cause some question as to its homogeneity. His one documented work is a tabernacle at Empoli, commissioned in 1484 and more or less finished by 1491.