Florentine Madonna and Child 1 Book of 20 USPS Forever First Class Postage Stamp U.S. Holiday Christmas (20 Stamps)

This Christmas USPS stamp features a detail of Madonna and Child, a 15th-century tempera-on-panel painting in the Widener Collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The painting is dated to circa 1470, and its anonymous artist is known only as “a Follower of Fra Filippo Lippi and Pesellino.” Art historians have speculated that the painter may have had preparatory drawings or close copies of the works of the masters he imitated, and that a relationship may have existed between those artists’ workshops and the workshop of this anonymous painter. William J. Gicker served as art director for this issuance.