The Madonna and Child enthroned in a niche

At the age of 13, Francesco Botticini entered Neri di Bicci's workshop as a salaried assistant. However, he left after only nine months, perhaps having determined that his previous training under his father, a painter of playing cards, would be enough to allow him to work independently. By 1469, he appears to have already formed his own workshop. Botticini's oeuvre reflects the influence of many of the major Florentine artistic personalities of his time, particularly Verrocchio, Filippino Lippi, Botticelli and Perugino. He was also receptive to northern artists, such as Hans Memling and Hugo van der Goes, whose works were much appreciated in Florence. Botticini painted a number of larger-scale altarpieces such as the Tabernacle of the Sacrament for the high altar of the collegiate church of Empoli (Empoli, Museo della Collegiata di Sant'Andrea), in which figures appear in aediculae similar to the one seen in the present painting. Like his contemporaries, he also produced numerous smaller devotional paintings, many of which featured the Madonna and Child.

Botticini's elegant Virgin, with her elongated torso and golden hair, and his vivacious Christ Child owe much to the work of Sandro Botticelli. The extent of Botticini's debt to the Florentine master becomes evident when one compares the present work to Botticelli's altarpiece of the Madonna and Child with Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist of 1485 (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie). In both, one encounters beautiful Virgins with similarly proportioned bodies, conceived according to the same canon of beauty, and renderings of the Christ Child featuring comparably high foreheads and distinctive noses. Of the numerous paintings by Botticini that may be linked to the present painting, the Madonna and Child in the Baltimore Museum of Art is especially close.