''Visitation'' is a tempera on panel painting usually attributed to

Perugino Pietro Perugino ( ; ; born Pietro Vannucci or Pietro Vanucci; – 1523), an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Raphael became his most famous ...

, executed ''c.'' 1472–1473, now in the

Galleria dell'Accademia The Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze () is an art museum in Florence, Italy. It is best known as the home of Michelangelo's sculpture ''David''. It also has other sculptures by Michelangelo and a large collection of paintings by Florentine a ...

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 ...

. An early work by the artist from around the same time as '' Nativity of the Virgin'', while he was still heavily influenced by

Andrea del Verrocchio Andrea del Verrocchio ( , , ; born Andrea di Michele di Francesco de' Cioni; – 1488) was an Italian sculpture, sculptor, List of Italian painters, painter and goldsmith who was a master of an important workshop in Florence. He apparently bec ...

, it probably originated as part of the

predella In art a predella (plural predelle) is the lowest part of an altarpiece, sometimes forming a platform or step, and the painting or sculpture along it, at the bottom of an altarpiece, sometimes with a single much larger main scene above, but oft ...

for a lost altarpiece. It shows the Visitation, with the Virgin Mary's mother

Saint Anne According to apocrypha, as well as Christianity, Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's Gosp ...

to the left. In the left background is

Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone ( 1181 – 3 October 1226), known as Francis of Assisi, was an Italians, Italian Mysticism, mystic, poet and Friar, Catholic friar who founded the religious order of the Franciscans. Inspired to lead a Chris ...

receiving the stigmata and in the right background is Florence's patron saint, John the Baptist - this may indicate that the lost altarpiece was intended for a Franciscan monastery in Florence such as Santa Croce. There is debate over the painting's attribution to Perugino - Mackowsky, Raimond van Marle and Ugo Procacci instead attributed it to Jacopo del Sellaio or his school. The attribution to Perugino was first mooted in 1959 at a conference by

Federico Zeri Federico Zeri (12 August 1921 – 5 October 1998) was an Italian art historian specialised in Italian Renaissance painting. He wrote for the Italian newspaper ''La Stampa'', and was a well known television-personality in Italy. Zeri was born in ...

. Anna Padoa Rizzo agrees, but Jean K. Cadogan attributes it to

Domenico Ghirlandaio Domenico di Tommaso Curradi di Doffo Bigordi (2 June 1448 – 11 January 1494), professionally known as Domenico Ghirlandaio (also spelt as Ghirlandajo), was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Florence. Ghirlandaio was part of the so-c ...

instead. Vittoria Garibaldi, ''Perugino'', in ''Pittori del Rinascimento'', Scala, Florence, 2004

References

{{15C-painting-stub Paintings by Pietro Perugino 1470s paintings Paintings in the Galleria dell'Accademia

category:Paintings of the Virgin Mary Paintings of John the Baptist Paintings of Francis of Assisi category:Paintings of Saint Anne