Madonna mit Kind und Heiligen

Filippino Lippi painted this altarpiece in the mid-1480s for Tanai de' Nerli, a Florentine merchant, and it still stands in the church he chose, Santo Spirito. The Virgin sits with the Child among Saints Catherine and Martin, the grouping Renaissance Florence called a sacra conversazione. What makes it local is the background. Through the loggia you see the actual Porta San Frediano, the city gate near Nerli's own house, and by the wall Tanai kneels to embrace his small daughter while his wife looks on. He had a particular devotion to Catherine and named that daughter after her. The Porta San Frediano he pictured behind them still stands in Florence, at the edge of the Oltrarno quarter where the church is.