Michelangelo’s painting of the Holy Family in the Uffizi is the Doni Tondo, also called the Doni Madonna.
The work shows Mary, Joseph and the Christ Child in the foreground, with the young John the Baptist behind them and five nude figures in the distant background. It is a tondo, the Italian term for a round painting, a format especially associated with domestic and devotional art in Renaissance Florence.
The painting was commissioned by the Florentine merchant Agnolo Doni. It may have commemorated his marriage to Maddalena Strozzi, although another theory connects it with the birth of their daughter. The elaborate original frame includes symbols associated with the Doni and Strozzi families.
The Doni Tondo is especially important because it is Michelangelo’s only securely attributed finished panel painting by the mature artist. It was completed before he began painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling in 1508. The Manchester Madonna and The Entombment are related Michelangelo works, but neither is the Uffizi Holy Family.