The ''Pala delle Convertite'' or ''The Trinity with Saints Mary Magdalen and John the Baptist'', (the museum's name) or ''Holy Trinity'', is an

altarpiece An altarpiece is a painting or sculpture, including relief, of religious subject matter made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting or sculpture, ...

by the

Italian Renaissance painter Italian Renaissance painting is the painting of the period beginning in the late 13th century and flourishing from the early 15th to late 16th centuries, occurring in the Italian Peninsula, which was at that time divided into many political sta ...

Sandro Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), better known as Sandro Botticelli ( ; ) or simply known as Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 1 ...

and his workshop, traditionally dated to c. 1491–1493. It is now in the

Courtauld Gallery The Courtauld Gallery () is an art museum in Somerset House, on the Strand, London, Strand in central London. It houses the collection of the Samuel Courtauld Trust and operates as an integral part of the Courtauld Institute of Art. The Court ...

in London. It is now thought the painting was begun much earlier, perhaps in the 1470s, and was worked on during three decades. It was commissioned by the ''

Arte dei Medici e degli Speziali Arte (, , ; ' ('), sometimes stylised in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ( EEI ...

'' (

guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular territory. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradespeople belonging to a professional association. They so ...

of the Doctors and Pharmacists, to which the painters also belonged) for the church of Santa Elisabetta delle Convertite in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, a church institution housing former prostitutes or fallen women, who had converted from their previous life, and whose patron saint was

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cr ...

The traditional Italian name means the altarpiece or "panel" (''pala'') of the "converted ones" (''convertite''). A restoration of the painting was completed in 2021.

Main scene

The painting is in

tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. ''Tempera'' also refers to the paintings done in ...

on poplar panel. The main scene shows the

Holy Trinity The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, three ...

(Jesus crucified, God and a dove representing Holy Spirit) within an

mandorla A mandorla is an almond-shaped aureola, i.e. a frame that surrounds the totality of an iconographic figure. It is usually synonymous with '' vesica'', a lens shape. Mandorlas often surround the figures of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary in tra ...

(

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', Synonym (taxonomy)#Botany, syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree from the genus ''Prunus''. Along with the peach, it is classified in the subgenus ''Amygdalus'', distinguished from the other subgenera ...

-shaped frame) with

seraphim A seraph ( ; pl.: ) is a Angelic being, celestial or heavenly being originating in Ancient Judaism. The term plays a role in subsequent Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Tradition places seraphim in the highest rank in Christian angelology and ...

. In the background is a blue sky within two rocky spurs, in front of which are Mary Magdalene, taken in an intense praying posture, and

St. John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

, patron saint of Florence, who, as usual in the pictures of the period, is pointing to the centre of the composition. The figure of Magdalene resembles the rather earlier " Magdalene Penitent" by

Donatello Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), known mononymously as Donatello (; ), was an Italian Renaissance sculpture, Italian sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Republic of Florence, Florence, he studied classical sc ...

, now usually dated to about 1440, and that by

Desiderio da Settignano Desiderio da Settignano, real name Desiderio de Bartolomeo di Francesco detto Ferro ( 1428 or 1430 – 1464) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor active in north Italy. Biography He came from a family of stone carvers and stonemasons in Settigna ...

(c. 1455) in the church of

Santa Trinita Santa Trinita (; Italian for "Holy Trinity") is a Roman Catholic church located in front of the ''piazza'' of the same name, traversed by Via de' Tornabuoni, in central Florence, Tuscany, Italy. It is the mother church of the Vallumbrosan Orde ...

. There are stylistic disparities between the style of the two standing saints, suggesting they were painted at different times.

Tobias and the Angel

In the lower part, at a much smaller scale, are

Tobias and the Angel Tobias and the Angel is the traditional title of depictions in art of a passage from the Book of Tobit in which Tobias, son of Tobit, travels with the Archangel Raphael without realising he is an angel (5.5–6) and is then instructed by Raphael ...

(the

Archangel Raphael Raphael ( , ; "God has healed") is an archangel first mentioned in the Book of Tobit and in 1 Enoch, both estimated to date from between the 3rd and 2nd century BCE. In later Jewish tradition, he became identified as one of the three heavenly ...

with

Tobias Tobias is the transliteration of the , which is a Graecisation of the Hebrew biblical name . With the biblical Book of Tobit being present in the Deuterocanonical books and Biblical apocrypha, Tobias is a popular male given name for both Chri ...

), who is holding the fish that, in the Biblical tale, he had been told by the angel to capture in order to save his father (but his usual dog is missing). They walk past, ignoring the main scene above them; there are a number of paintings where the pair intrude on other religious scenes. Their presence is no doubt because Raphael was the patron saint of the Arte dei Medici e degli Speziali. Modern imaging has revealed that originally this pair were on the right behind the cross in a landscape background that was later overpainted. They are painted in a somewhat different (indeed better) style than the large figures above; the heads of the seraphim in particular are considered to be painted by the workshop. It is now thought that the first figures of Tobias and the Angel were painted by

Filippino Lippi Filippino Lippi (probably 1457 – 18 April 1504) was an Italian Renaissance painter mostly working in Florence, Italy during the later years of the Early Renaissance and first few years of the High Renaissance. He also worked in Rome for a ...

, Botticelli's main assistant in the earlier period, while the relocated pair we see now are probably by Botticelli himself, in the 1490s.Cole

Notes

References

*Cole, Alison,
Restoration of Courtauld Gallery's Botticelli altarpiece yields surprising new discoveries
, ''

The Art Newspaper ''The Art Newspaper'' is a monthly print publication, with daily updates online, founded in 1990 and based in London and New York City. It covers news of the visual arts as they are affected by international politics and economics, developments i ...

'', 19 November 2021 *"Courtauld"
Museum page
*"WGA"

Frosinini, Cecilia, The Underline: Revealing Drawing and Modeling Beneath Botticelli's Paintings, in Botticelli Drawings, ed. by Furio Rinaldi, exhibition Catalogue, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2023, pp. 46-63 and 274-276

{{Botticelli 1490s paintings Paintings by Sandro Botticelli Paintings of the Crucifixion of Jesus Paintings of John the Baptist Paintings of Raphael (archangel)

Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), better known as Sandro Botticelli ( ; ) or simply known as Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 1 ...

Paintings of Mary Magdalene Altarpieces Paintings in the Courtauld Gallery

Main scene

Tobias and the Angel

See also

Notes

References