The Holy Trinity or Pala delle Convertite is an altarpiece by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, dating to c. 1491-1493. It is housed in Courtauld Institute Galleries of London. It was originally commissioned by the Arte dei Medici e degli Speziali for the church of Santa Elisabetta delle Convertite in Florence, a church/monastery housing former prostitutes or fallen women, who had converted from the licentious life to one of honesty, and whose patron saint was Mary Magdalene The picture shows the Trinity within an almond with seraphims. In the background is a blue sky... within two rocky spurs, in front of which are Mary Magdalene, taken in an intense praying posture, and St. John the Baptist, patron saint of Florence, who, as usual in the pictures of the period, is pointing to the center of the composition. The figure of Magdalene resembles the contemporary "Magdalene Penitent" by Donatello and that by Desiderio da Settignano in the church of Santa Trinita.
more