Cleveland Museum painting on stamp

An Italian Renaissance painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art will adorn millions of postage stamps this holiday season.

The U.S. Postal Service has chosen Sandro Botticelli's "Virgin and Child with the Young John the Baptist" as its 2008 Christmas stamp.

Six hundred million copies of the 42-cent stamp will be printed.

The postal service scours art museums across the U.S. to find an image of Mary and the baby Jesus to feature on the stamp each holiday season.

The Cleveland painting was chosen by a committee that sifted through about 50,000 proposals, a number received every year.