17th century Italian school, The Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist

17th century Italian School
The Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist
Oil on canvas
Dimensions: h. 106 cm, l. 77 cm
Important 17th century Italian carved giltwood frame
Framed dimensions: h. 137 cm, l. 105 cm

Based on the composition by Franciabigio painted around 1517 (oil on panel, 106 x 81 cm) and exhibited in the Uffizi in Florence (inv. 1890, 1445)


The Virgin is seated in the heart of a bucolic landscape, she is represented from the front, with a slightly inclined head and her serene expression conveys a feeling of maternal tenderness. She holds in one of her arms the Child Jesus leaning on her breast and she extends the other hand to the little Saint John the Baptist who presents her with a banner. Mary is dressed in a pink dress and a blue mantle that envelops her in her lower part, the rounded and damp drapes in the antique style of the fabrics fall to the ground and reveal her bare feet. The naked Jesus seems to be hovering in the air, supported only by his mother's arm, his head turned towards the little Saint John the Baptist attracts the viewer's gaze while the feeling of the immediacy of the moment is accentuated by the gesture of Mary who leans in slight contrapposto towards the child.

Our work reminiscent of the Florentine Renaissance and the works of Raphael and Andrea del Sarto is based on a painting by a Florentine Franciabigio, whose real name was Francesco di Cristofano (1482-1525).
The original painting intended for the chapel of the Albizzi family in the church of Saint Peter the Major is mentioned for the first time in the 17th century in the inventory of Cardinal Carlo de Medici in Rome after his death in 1666. Our painting painted on a canvas woven with thick threads typical of the Roman school could thus have been executed at this period by an anonymous Roman artist.

Related works:
• A workshop or student replica, 16th century, oil on panel (100 x 80 cm), Saint Leonard Church, Artimino, Tuscany, Italy
• A workshop or student replica, 16th century, oil on panel, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
• A replica by Giuliano Bugiardini (Florence, 1475-1555), oil on canvas (102 x 77 cm), Valenciennes Museum of Fine Arts, inv. P.46.1.226

Bibliography: Franciabigio, Susan Mac Killop, University of California Press, 1974