(Sassoferrato 1609–1685 Rome)
The Holy Family,
oil on canvas, 71 x 94 cm, framed

Provenance:
Stirling-Maxwell collection, Keir, Scotland;
by descent to Col. William Stirling of Keir;
sale, Christie’s, London, 16 December 1977, lot 38 (as Giovanni Battista Salvi, il Sassoferrato);
sale, Christie’s, London, 14 July 1978, lot 28 (as Giovanni Battista Salvi, il Sassoferrato);
sale, Christie’s, London, 18 July 1980, lot 120 (as Giovanni Battista Salvi, il Sassoferrato);
Private European collection

The present painting is registered in the Fototeca Zeri (no. 46097) as Giovanni Battista Salvi (Sassoferrato).

We are grateful to François Macé de Lépinay for suggesting the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a high resolution digital photograph.

This work represents the Holy Family: the Virgin holds the Child on her white veil in her arms, as he sits on a cushion. He supports himself by extending his left hand round his Mothers neck, while he raises his right in a gesture of blessing towards Saint Joseph who in turn is represented in profile. He holds his right hand to his breast while with his left he lightly supports the Child’s foot. The green of his shirt sleeve echoes that of the cushion and the tapestry that covers the foreground parapet, while the yellow of his mantle contrasts with the typical colours of the Virgin’s attire: the pink of her blouse and the intense blue of her mantle. In the background of the scene a red curtain is drawn slightly to the left lending an oblique movement to the composition.

This work represents a typical example of Giovanni Battista Salvi, called Sassoferrato’s, artistic production. The painting reproduces a celebrated composition of which the prototype is probably the painting preserved in the Musée Condé, Chantilly and dated to the 1640s. Compared to the latter, the present painting reveals some variants that underscore the original passages in this work compared to mere copies executed by Sassoferrato´s assistant or circler. For example, the Child’s hairstyle differs, here He has straight blond hair, while in the French work He has curls; the colour of the cushion also differs, as does that of the tapestry and the background which is dark in the French version.

The present work’s intimate religiosity, the quiet tone of the composition and its polished finish are among the typical stylistic features of Sassoferrato’s paintings. The artist spent his formative years in Rome alongside Domenichino, and was in contact with classicising circles from whence he derived an admiration for Raphael, and the desire to refer specifically to such cultural models. His compositions, which are predominantly devotional, reveal a refined archaism reminiscent of the great masters of the late Quattrocento and early Cinquecento. In the present painting a direct source of inspiration can be identified in the so-called Mackintosh Madonna by Raphael (National Gallery, London), while the inclusion of the foreground balustrade points to the compositional arrangements of Venetian works from the works of Giovanni Bellini.