Botticelli taught through his paintings. Here, the lesson will be on Christ’s Passion. Botticelli declares this with the pomegranate, a traditional Passion symbol (the wealth of pomegranates’ seeds conveys the fullness of Christ’s suffering). Every remaining detail teaches.
The child Jesus touches the fruit with one hand and gives a blessing with the other: grace, Botticelli indicates, comes from the merits of His suffering. Mary and Jesus hold the pomegranate together: Mary shares closely in her Son’s suffering, Botticelli implies, as well as His distribution of graces. The roses and lilies symbolize the Rosary: by including them, Botticelli lauds the Rosary as a meditation on the Passion.
Moreover, the expressions on the figures’ faces are unusual. They are more like the faces in paintings of the Pieta or the entombment, than those of a Madonna and Child. Perhaps Botticelli wishes to indicate Mary and Jesus’ anticipation of the Passion (in contrast to the now-popular belief that Mary and Jesus did not remotely suspect the roles they were to play).
