Title: Madonna and Child

Artist: Michelangelo

The Madonna and Child with a Male Saint, Catherine of Alexandria, and a Donor About 1496 Michelangelo di Pietro Membrini Italian, Lucca about 1461(?)–1525 Tempera on panel Circular paintings, or tondi, became popular in central Italy during the fifteenth century, often commissioned to celebrate or anticipate a marriage or birth. The coats of arms on the Virgin Mary’s throne belong to the Guinigi and the Buonvisi, two leading families from the Italian city of Lucca. The painting likely commemorates the marriage of the banker Michele Guinigi, shown kneeling before the Virgin and the suckling Christ child, to Caterina Buonvisi. Holding a fragment of a wheel, Caterina assumes the guise of her patron saint, Catherine of Alexandria.