Madonna and Child with Saint Joseph and an Angel

This is one of the finest devotional paintings by Raffaellino del Garbo, who trained in Filippino Lippi's workshop and assisted in Lippi's great fresco decorations in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome, from 1488–92. In the nervous line, the rather eccentric classical architecture, and the cool palette, Raffaellino comes close to the style of Filippino, who may have been responsible for the design of the painting.

The losses in flesh tones on the Virgin’s face have revealed the green underpainting below.

Credit: Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913