(Venice 1709-1787), The Holy Family with Saints Francis, Anthony of Padua, and Gaetano of Thiene, oil on canvas, 176.5 x 89.5 cm, framed

Provenance: private collection, Padua. Certificate: Prof. Egidio Martini. Prof. Martini points out that the composition of the present painting is based on a painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo now in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. In Zugno’s version, however, St. Gaetano of Thiene appears left to the Madonna, instead of St. Louis of Toulouse. The former was a much-worshipped saint in Venice and the Veneto. Prof. Martini in his certificate: "In questa pala la fattura pittorica è eseguita con una tecnica particolare, con una pennellata morbida e una forma più sfumata che, pur restando entro l'invenzione tiepolesca, ha reso sua originalità: una fattura che ci riporta, proprio per questi suoi caratteri stilistici, ad attribuire il dipinto qui in esame a Francesco Zugno, cioè al maggior discepolo e collaboratore del grande Maestro...". According to Martini, the typology of St. Gaetano of Thiene’s head, modelled in greyish hues, also points to Francesco Zugno as the author of the present work. Martini dates the altarpiece to the period around 1745 and compares it to a Holy Family and a Bishop by Zugno (comp. G. M. Pilo, “Francesco Zugno”, in: Saggi e Memorie, 1958, fig. 35). Our painting excellently displays the talent of Zugno, who was more than just a skilled pupil of Tiepolo’s.