Madona com o Menino e cenas da vida de santa Ana

This round panel is one of the earliest of its kind. Filippo Lippi painted it in Florence around 1452, when the circular format, the tondo, was still a novelty that would soon become a favourite for well-off Florentine homes. The scene folds several moments into one room. Mary sits with the Christ child in front, while behind her the walls open onto her own beginnings, the birth of the Virgin on one side and, on the other, her parents Joachim and Anne meeting at the city gate. It was made for a private house rather than a church, which is why the holy story plays out inside an ordinary, richly furnished Florentine interior.