A tondo (plural "tondi" or "tondos") is a Renaissance term for a circular work of art, either a painting or a sculpture.

Sandro Botticelli

•The challenge of the tondo is to create a coherent composition in a circular space. This is a reason to centralize the composition.•Strong Triangular composition.•Botticelli is among the first artists to centralize the subject of the Adoration. •The story of the Three Kings (or Magi) had great appeal in 15th-century

•The center is important for the circle where all points on the circle are equal distant from that center. •So the main subject is in the centre.•In the Madonna of the Pomegranate the Christ child's head is near the center. This formal placement already makes him appear the ruler. The secondary theme here is in the upraised hand in blessing, and the handling of the pomegranate, like an orb of power. This clearly give the child a dominant position.

Madonna of the Pomegranate, Sandro Botticelli, 1487. Arnheim p. 77.

The Virgin is taking the Infant from St. Joseph, or handing Jesus to him. Behind the wall is a young St. John, who will ultimately announce the coming of Christ. The presence of St. John alludes to Christ's birth and baptism. The nude figures in the background represent pagan mankind before the coming of Christ, and the infant Saint John creates a link, as a symbol of baptism, between this old pagan world and the new Christian world.Frame - Five carved heads, with Christ at the top form a pentagram. Mary's head, the focal point of the picture, is perfectly placed within the apex triangle of the star. The two walls, one on which the nude figures are seated, and the other which separates the old and new worlds, are carefully aligned on key horizontals within the pentagram.

Michelangelo Buonarotti.  Holy Family (Doni Tondo), ca. 1504-05.  Oil tempera on wood, approx. 47" diameter. Uffizi, Florence.

Raphael Santi European Master Painter - Tondo Madonna Conestabile by Raphael Santi | Painting

- Triangular composition, strong horizontal plane, simple background

Stronger triangular composition, strong horizontal plane, simple background.

Mary is in the centre- to help balance John the Baptist her arm is stretched out as well as the stump she is leaning on and her cape.

Madonna Alba 1511Artist: Raphael Italian 1483-1520) High Renaissance Painter