Madonna and Child with St. Jerome, St. Francis, St. Anthony of Padua and St. Louis of Toulouse

The altarpiece painted for the church of San Francesco is a notable example of Botticini’s mature painting, showing here too allusions to other important painters (Verrocchio and Botticelli). The gilded background, which was decidedly “out of fashion” in high-Renaissance painting, was probably the clients’choice, but in any case it added to the preciousness of the whole work. Standing out from this background is the lavish marble-clad throne on which the Virgin suckles the beautiful, lively Child, who is pausing just slightly to look at the viewer. Elongated, almost column-like, figures of saints are arranged around them in an artificially-constructed space (the vanishing points of the composition seem to converge in the Madonna’s right eye). The definition of the details is careful and refined, starting with the Ludovic’s crosier, mitre and gloves, which are true pieces of gold jewellery; also the gilded, engraved ribs of the books and the golden rays which mark the stigmata of the extremely human Francis; finally the description of the plants in the garden, worthy of a mediaeval herbarium. St. Jerome’s cardinal’s hat (galero) has been placed on this garden in a fine example of accurate perspective.