Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist

roman school

The provenance and collecting history of this work are unknown. The subject matter is intriguing, seeming to combine the iconography of the Virgo Lactans with the more traditional iconography of the Holy Family: it features St. John and St. Joseph, the latter depicted in a deep sleep, while Mary is engaged in reading.

Object details

Commentary

The date of the painting’s entry into the collection is unknown, but its attribution to Lavinia and Prospero Fontana, as recorded in the inventories, cannot be accepted. The figure of the Madonna reproduces in reverse a painting by Perin del Vaga (Chantilly, Musée Condé), which would bring it more in line with Roman circles, within the mid-sixteenth century, close to the sphere of Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta (Sermoneta 1521 - Rome 1575). Nevertheless, the Michelangelo-like layout, as well as the statuesque, three-dimensional conception of the group, reveal the high level of quality and considerable skill of this anonymous master, gravitating in Siciolante’s orbit but not uninfluenced by Perin. Longhi believed that the attribution should be directed toward a ‘Mannerist painter of the sphere of Salviati’ (1928, p. 346), to whose work the sinuous lines of the drapery as well as the cold, metallic colours seem to be similar.

Mary is a self-aware figure, intent on reading the holy book; the uncovered breast alludes to the theme of Virgo Lactans, as well as to the affirmation of the human nature of the Son of God; this iconography, which fell out of favour after the Council of Trent, is a useful element for dating the painting.

Simona Ciofetta