(Siegen 1577–1640 Antwerp)
The Virgin and Child with Saint Elizabeth and the Infant Saint John the Baptist,
oil on canvas, 152.5 x 118 cm, unframed

Provenance:
Private collection, Belgium

The present picture is a workshop variant after the prototype by Rubens in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid.
The prototype dates from c. 1616–1620. These years were marked for Rubens by numerous private commissions which included a number of holy family compositions. This particular composition goes back to Rubens’ travels in Italy where he was influenced by the Italian Renaissance and in this case particularly by Raphael’s La Perla in the Prado, Madrid. It is likely that Rubens would have seen that picture in the ducal palace in Mantua. The pose of the infant Christ in his mother’s lap, and that of the young Saint John are close to Raphael’s original.

Besides the Madrid picture and the present lot there are further versions in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna and in the church of Santa Maria del Giglio in Venice in addition to three more in private collections (see I. Gaskell, Seventeenth Century Dutch and Flemish Painting, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, London, 1990, p. 552).