MADONNA DEL MAGNIFICAT Silver Coin 500 Francs Cameroon 2017

Madonna of the Magnificat
The Madonna of the Magnificat, Italian: Madonna del Magnificat, is a painting of circular or tondo form by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. It is now in the galleries of the Uffizi, in Florence. The work portrays the Virgin Mary crowned by two angels. She is writing the opening of the Magnificat on the right-hand page of a book; on the left page is part of the Benedictus. In her left hand she holds a pomegranate. Mary is thought to be a portrait of Lucrezia Tornabuoni, wife of Piero de' Medici, and the two angels holding the book to be her sons Lorenzo and Giuliano. The history of the painting is not known. It was acquired by the Uffizi in 1785 from Ottavio Magherini. It may have come from one of the many monasteries suppressed by the Archduke Pietro Leopoldo. It has been identified with the tondo in the church of San Francesco al Monte mentioned by Vasari and Bocchi, but the description does not coincide and this identification is usually rejected. There are several copies of the painting, including one in the Louvre, one in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York.