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About This Work
The Virgin sits in a flowered meadow, looking down at the Christ child who stands against her knee and looks back at her. To the right, a young Saint John the Baptist kneels with his reed cross, gazing toward Jesus. The figures are arranged in a stable pyramid against a backdrop of rolling hills, a body of water, and a distant city with a tall spire.
This work embodies the High Renaissance synthesis of Christian devotion and Neoplatonic aesthetics, where the pursuit of 'ideal beauty' was viewed as a reflection of divine perfection. The harmony of the composition and the idealized features of the Virgin relate to the Neoplatonic ideas of Marsilio Ficino regarding the ascent of the soul through the contemplation of beauty.