LIKE A LATE 15TH CENTURY VERSION OF A GROUP SELFIE, seven fresh young faces crowd into a rondo viewfinder to immortalize a shared moment. But, not to be misinterpreted as a casual contemporary scene, here the ageless message is unmistakable. In this painting Madonna of the Pomegranate (Uffizi, Florence), by Italian Renaissance artist, Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni dei Filipepi (1445–1510), better known as Sandro Botticelli, he makes it easy to identify the figures on canvas. Central to the composition, the largest of the figures is the Virgin Mary draped in costly lapis lazuli and crimson garb and surrounded in this carefully composed, symmetrical composition by six winged angels—three to each side. Under a radiating, golden glow emanating from the heavens they come bearing lilies and garlands of roses —symbols of purity and innocence—for both mother and child. The generously proportioned Christ Child rests weightlessly in his mother’s arms, as each gingerly touches a pomegranate—the central motif in the scene. The careful choice of the preposition of, not with a pomegranate, alerts the viewer to the artist’s belief in the anthropomorphized relationship between the figure of the Virgin, her God-Child and their connection to the human condition, as symbolized by the fruit of this lowly deciduous shrub.

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