Polidoro de Renzi known as Polidoro da Lanciano (Lanciano, 1515 – Venice, 1565) (attr.), Holy Family with the Infant Saint John

Polidoro de Renzi known as Polidoro da Lanciano (Lanciano, 1515 – Venice, 1565) (attr.)

Holy Family with Saint John

Oil on canvas, 76 x 93 cm

With frame, 88 x 104 cm

The valuable canvas is linked to the Venetian painter Polidoro da Lanciano, trained in Titian, due to its clear stylistic affinities. The compositional scheme of the Holy Family with the Infant Saint John recurs in many of Polidoro's works, see for example the canvases in Ca Rezzonico, the Accademia Carrara, the Castelvecchio Museum, the Capitoline Art Gallery and Palazzo dei Diamanti: in particular, our painting takes up the composition of the one in Ferrara, which presents clear Titian motifs: the farmhouses in the background with the typical sloping roofs, the Infant Saint John embracing the lamb, the morphology of the branch and the draperies. As in the present one, the composition is based on a growing diagonal that from the head of the Infant Saint John culminates in the serene face of the Virgin, always placed in a privileged position with respect to the other characters. Behind her, a lush natural landscape highlights and focuses our attention on the sacred group. The full and rosy face slightly bent to the side of the Virgin instead recalls models of Francesco Vecellio, in whose workshop Polidoro seems to have begun his career in the lagoon. The pleasant amber landscape of sloping hills looks to the work of another Venetian painter, Bonifacio de Pitati, whose influence is very present in Polidoro's works of the 30s. Even the bearded figure of Saint Joseph harks back to the elegant ways of Pitati, suggesting a total immersion of our painter in the best art of his time. The work is well suited to the production aimed at creating devotional paintings and Sacred Conversations with a narrative character, following tried and tested iconographic formulas of great success.

Born in Lanciano, Abruzzo, around 1515, Polidoro soon moved to Venice, a city that would consecrate him as a painter. Information about his artistic training is scarce. It is assumed that he had an apprenticeship in his hometown, and then moved to Rome around 1536. In the papal city, Polidoro came into contact with the artistic movement of Raphaelism, being influenced by artists such as Raffaello Sanzio and Giulio Romano. In the same year he seems to have arrived in Venice where his name is registered as Fraglia dei Pittori Veneziani. The first pictorial evidence suggests a period of work, or at least close collaboration within the Vecellio workshop although his art also appears to be influenced by Paris Bordon and Bonifacio de Pitati. The opportunity to emerge came in 1544 when he was called by the Scuola dello Spirito Santo to execute the Descent of the Holy Spirit today at the Galleria dell'Accademia. But in this decade we find other large-format works, where clear Tintoretto suggestions are evident: in 1552 he created the lost gonfalon for the Scuola Grande di San Teodoro, in 1559 he received the commission for the organ doors of the Church of San Giovanni in Bragora, while his style manifests clear suggestions of Veronese classicism, from which he draws iconographic modules and a renewed chromatic modernity.