Adoration of Christ, Fhillipino Lippi, 1480 CE

I know, this is similar to many birth of the Christ child paintings, but then, if the occasion fits, it seems quite reasonable.
This one is from one of my all time favorite museums, a place that despite the intense chaos and tremendous crowds I would go back to in an instant.  The Hermitage, housed in the Winter Palace, containing Peter the Great's art collection and put together by Catherine the Great.
It is painted by Filippino Lippi, the son of the artist-monk, Fra Filippo Lippi, and himself a pupil of Botticelli. This type of Adoration scene was characteristic of Italian art, being a modification of the scene of the Nativity. Set in a flower-filled meadow surrounded by a balustrade and symbolising Paradise, the scene unfolds before a poetic landscape which seems to be filled with a golden light filtering through the atmosphere(which truthfully is the thing that I like most about this piece).   Filippino was one of the first Italian artists to create a landscape in keeping with the mood and appearance of the heroes, creating an inspired emotional setting for them. In the fragile and ethereal Madonna and in the translucent figures of the angels we can feel the mystic exaltation characteristic of Florentine spiritual life in the late 15th century.