(Bologna 1576–1622 Parma)
Holy Family with the Madonna teaching the Christ Child to read,
oil on canvas, 106.5 x 137 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Emilio Negro and Nicosetta Roio for confirming the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a high resolution digital photograph.

The composition of the present work, still on its original canvas, relates to another version (the current whereabouts unknown), that is also in oil on canvas, and shows some variations in detail and size (111 x 136.6 cm), as well as in the palette, wherein the use of brilliant blue for Mary’s mantle and Joseph’s tunic is especially notable in contrast to the grey-green of these vestments in the present painting. The other version was published as the work of Leonello Spada by Roio (see N. Roio, Bartolomeo Schedoni e Leonello Spada: alcune opere sconosciute di due ‘caravaggisti’ padani, in: Valori tattili, 1, 2013, pp. 56-57, 64, nota 20, p. 60, fig. 16). The present painting therefore represents a subject, the painter had already worked on, and which here he treats in a singular and unusual compositional manner. Of note is his peculiar description of the carpenter as a folk-figure, depicted according to an often repeated formula used by the painter throughout his career to represent old men such as in his many renderings of Saint Jerome.

Lionello Spada came from modest origins, however he was able to attain status as a painter and he worked under the protection of high ranking patrons, such as the cardinals Maffeo Barberini and Alessandro d’Este. He spent his final years in Parma in the service of Duke Ranuccio Farnese. The comparison of the present Holy Family with the Madonna teaching the Christ Child to read with other works by Lionello Spada during his years at the Farnese court allows us to date this painting exactly to that period of his final maturity. Comparable works are the Salome with the head of Saint John the Baptist in a private collection, and the Deposition formerly in Palazzo Chigi, Rome (see Roio, op. cit., figs. 15, 17) which reveal a similar intensity of expression in the figures: their expansive forms are highlighted by a warm palette and a particularly personal way of rendering drapery folds, with strong contrasts of light and shade, set against a neutral background. Indeed, such a setting of the figures evoked both the Caravaggism of the middle years of Spada’s career, spent between Bologna, Reggio Emilia and Malta, as it did the stylistic traits he acquired during his youth, in contact with the academic world of the Bolognese painters Ludovico, Agostino and Annibale Carracci.

The present painting represents one of the most diffused subjects of the Christian tradition: this so-called Sacra Conversazione follows a familiar iconographic scheme, wherein the Child, accompanied by the Virgin and Saint Joseph, is the protagonist of a pleasing devotional image. Mary is shown half-length and in profile on the left. She is revealed in a moment of tenderness towards her divine Son. He is shown seated on the stone ledge, while Saint Joseph is seen from the side; wrapped in concentration, he rests his elbows on his mantle laid over the ledge and holds his head in his hands as he observes the scene. The Child is shown naked according to that tradition which highlights for viewers the double nature of Christ the Saviour as both earthly and divine. This specifically reveals his lack of dress so as to underline, and thereby concentrate attention on his humanity: his nakedness here stands witness to his innocence. The scene unfolds before a wilfully dark background that highlights the warm tones of the palette and the intimate and affectionate exchange between the protagonists. The episode evokes the moment when Christ, no longer a new-born, is trying to learn to read thanks to the loving attention of his Mother, and the equally enraptured devotion of his putative father.

We are grateful to Emilio Negro for his help in cataloguing this lot.