The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist
Artist: Francesco Salviati (Italian (Florence), 1510 -1563)
Date: about 1540
Dimensions:
Painting: 51 1/4 × 31 1/2 in. (130.2 × 80 cm)
Frame: 71 3/4 × 56 × 5 in. (182.2 × 142.2 × 12.7 cm)
Medium: oil on wood panel
Place of Origin: Florence, Italy
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1975.83
Label Text:Languorously elegant, a youthful Madonna gently supports a robust, twisting Christ Child on her lap in this striking panel by Francesco Salviati. Leaning against her left shoulder, the infant John the Baptist gazes adoringly at his young cousin, Jesus. Saint Joseph looks on in contemplation from the shadows. The figures emerge from a velvety darkness, the Virgin's robes almost glowing, with the play of light on the fabric represented through color shifts rather than changes in value, giving the garment an iridescent quality. The elongated proportions, serpentine poses, shallow space, and vibrant, high-key tones express the taste for the graceful, studied artifice of the bella maniera, or Mannerism, of the 16th century.
Salviati's early training as a goldsmith is evident not only in the elaborate diadem and jeweled collar worn by the Virgin and in the clasp of John the Baptist's cloak, with its fanciful, grotesque face; but also in the ornamental line of details such as hair and the folds of the garments.
Salviati's early training as a goldsmith is evident not only in the elaborate diadem and jeweled collar worn by the Virgin and in the clasp of John the Baptist's cloak, with its fanciful, grotesque face; but also in the ornamental line of details such as hair and the folds of the garments.
On view
In Collection(s)