Holy Family with the infant Saint John, Cerchia Giovanni Battista Ramenghi (Bologna, 1521 – 1601)

Holy Family with Saint John

Oil painting on canvas

This interesting painting depicts one of the most widespread iconographic subjects in the Christian tradition, presented here according to an ancient and tested scheme which places the Virgin in prayer and the sleeping Child at the center of a tender devotional representation, completed by the presence of Saint Joseph, on the right, placidly leaning on his cane.

To enrich this canonical Holy Family, little Saint John the Baptist appears on the right who, as if wanting to address the viewer directly, signals silence with his hands so as not to disturb the little sleeper and to invite him to contemplate the scene with devotion.

Regarding the stylistic characteristics of our canvas, it is easy to grasp the preponderant influences of Bolognese painting, and in particular the relationship with the works of one of the major artists of the sixteenth century, Giovan Battista Ramenghi.

The solid and clear volumes, the physiognomic features, the geometrically raised drapery and the gestural eloquence of the characters, as well as the clear layout in space, certainly allow us to bring the execution closer to his pictorial way, although from an analytical perspective the solutions more synthetic in the rendering of the figures, lead us more prudently to consider the canvas as a valid work by an author of his circle, to be placed in the early seventeenth century.

The painting presents us with one of the favorite themes of the Bolognese painter, or more likely of his clients, and frequently re-proposed by his workshop, although with always different compositional inventions. In our version we can detect all the elements that contributed to defining his formal culture: from the classicism underlying the monumental balance of the group, of Bolognese heritage, to the clear quotation of Raphael in the figure of Saint Joseph, up to the refinement of the Tuscan-Roman manner inspiration of colors.

The excellent conservation conditions allow the vision of the splendid scene, capturing all its pictorial and chromatic peculiarities, with the pleasant and uniform crackle that characterizes the entire surface.

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