(Florence 1616–1686)
The sleeping Infant Saint John the Baptist with Saints Elizabeth and Zacharias and Cherubs,
oil on canvas, oval, 44 x 58.5 cm, laid down on rectangular canvas, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Rome

The present painting relates to the oval painting by Carlo Dolci in the Palatina Gallery of Palazzo Pitti, Florence (inv. Palatina 1912, no. 154 and see F. Baldassari, Carlo Dolci, Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, Turin 1995, pp. 284-285, no. 162). The canvas in the Palatina Gallery has been identified as the one mentioned by Baldinucci (see F. Baldinucci, Notizie dei professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua, Florence 1845-1847, vol. V, p. 354), which was executed by Dolci around 1674 for the Grand Duchess Vittoria della Rovere.

The Infant Saint John, in the foreground, is sleeping on a cushion beside his attribute, the cane cross, around which a coiled scroll bearing the inscription: “Ecce Agnus Dei qui tollit peccata mundi” alludes to his role as the Precursor. Behind the child is Elizabeth with a sorrowful upturned gaze, her right hand held to her breast and her left holding the white cloth that she will use to cover her son. Zachariah, behind Elizabeth on the far right of the composition, is turned away, intent on his reading of the Holy Scriptures. To the left, above, three cherubs watch over the protagonists. Lying face down with his left elbow and knee bent and his right leg out-stretched, the Infant Saint John is undoubtedly a direct citation of the Borghese Hermaphroditus, today in the Louvre (see Baldinucci, ibid., p. 32).