(Milan circa 1480/85–1553)
The Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist,
oil on panel, 65.5 x 49 cm, framed 

Provenance:
Aristocratic collection;
Private European collection

We are grateful to Cristina Geddo for suggesting the attribution after examination of the present painting in the original and for her help in cataloguing. She dates this work to 1525-1530. 

Giampietrino was among Leonardo da Vinci’s first Milanese pupils and is referred to by the master in a note mentioning him as ‘Gian Petro’ in the Codex Atlanticus (see C. Geddo, Capolavori da scoprire, 2006, p. 205). As Geddo has indicated there are references from Leonardo’s drawings in the present painting: the contraposto of the Infant Christ is related to the same figure in the cartoon of the Madonna and Saint Anne in the National Gallery, London, as well as to a study for the Madonna del Gatto in the Uffizi, Florence, datable to 1478-1480 (inv. no. 421Er).

The painting technique of the present work, fully conforms to Giampietrino’s corpus of works and can be appreciated in certain passages such as the golden curls of the Baptist’s hair ‘highlighted with fine brushstrokes, or the engaging landscape described in monochrome’ [‘lumeggiati con sottili tratti di pennello, o l’affascinante brano di paesaggio condotto a monocromo’]. Giampietrino’s singular style can also be recognised by the sweet, elegant beauty of his female figures, seen here in the features of the Madonna which are clearly derived from Leonardo, by the consistency of the pyramidal composition and by the palette dominated by the bold hues of Mary’s robes.

Significantly the present composition appears to be unique and there are no known replicas, nor a model. There are comparable works, such as the panel conserved in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where the landscape visible through an opening in the background and the positioning of the Infants is similar (see: John G. Johnson Collection. Catalogue of Italian Paintings, Philadelphia 1966, p. 33, cat. 271, fig. a, p. 190). A similar pictorial expression, as well as technique, can be found in the Adoration of the Child with Saint Roche in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan, dated to about 1524, which provides the present painting with an appropriate chronological point of reference, and it can be dated to no later than the fragmentary Nativity from the Church of the Annunciata in Savona, now in a private collection, which is documented between 1537-1539, and displays a comparable naturalistic, yet monumental composition.