Madonna and Child with two Angels

Francesco di Giorgio's Madonna and Child with Two Angels is among his most polished surviving panel paintings, produced at a moment in the mid-1470s when Sienese devotional painting was absorbing both Florentine Quattrocento influences and the soft landscape traditions of Flemish work. The inclusion of two angels framing the Virgin was a format popularised by Verrocchio in Florence and adopted across Tuscany, providing compositional symmetry and heavenly witness to the sacred encounter between mother and child.

Francesco di Giorgio deploys oil glazes over his tempera underpainting to achieve the subtle transition in the angels' wing feathers and the translucent veil over Mary's hair. The Child is modelled with rounded, high Florentine highlights that distinguish his handling from the older Sienese tempera tradition.