The Madonna of the Pavilion

This splendid tondo by Sandro Botticelli, made with the tip of the brush with the precision of a miniaturist, portrays an apparently conventional religious theme (the Virgin and Child), but it is actually laden with symbolism. The splendid “pavilion” or tent, is one of the most important Biblical symbols in both the Old Testament (the “tent of meeting” as the place of the presence of God) and in the New Testament (in the Gospel of John, to summarise the mystery of the incarnation, we read that “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us”, in which the original literally means “dwelt as in a tent”). The two angels who open the “tent” thus reveal the mystery of the incarnation: the Son of God, who has become a child, born of the Virgin Mother.