The Madonna of the Pomegranate

painting by Sandro Botticelli

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July 16, 2026

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The Madonna of the Pomegranate is a circular painting, or tondo, created by Sandro Botticelli around 1487. This work is a significant example of Botticelli's mastery in handling the tondo format, a style he refined to harmonize figures within a circular composition.1

The painting depicts the Virgin Mary holding the Christ child, surrounded by a retinue of angels. Botticelli's style in this period is characterized by graceful figures and a delicate rendering of form, though it also shows a developing naturalism influenced by his teachers. While the exact symbolism is open to interpretation, such works often explore themes of divine love and the Virgin's role in salvation. Botticelli was a prominent painter of the Florentine Renaissance, known for both his religious and mythological works.1

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Sandro Botticelli
Devotional paintings
(1480–89) and The Madonna of the Pomegranate (c. 1487). Botticelli also painted a few small oblong Madonnas, notably the Madonna of the Book (c. 1480–81), but he mostly left the painting of Madonnas and other devotional subjects to his workshop, which produced them in great numbers. In…
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(1480–89) and The Madonna of the Pomegranate (c. 1487). Botticelli also painted a few small oblong Madonnas, notably the Madonna of the Book (c. 1480–81), but he mostly left the painting of Madonnas and other devotional subjects to his workshop, which produced them in great numbers. In…
Read More