Oil on panel. Holy family with Saint Anne and Saint John . 16th century. 76 x 63

Author : Late Mannerist painter school of Giulio Romano Period : Sixteenth century The painting we present represents a valuable homage, identical in support and pictorial technique, to Giulio Romano's famous "Madonna of the Cat," a work dated between 1521-1524 and preserved at the National Museum of Capodimonte in Naples. Our work in fact constitutes a valuable workshop replica of the aforementioned painting, attributable to a late Mannerist painter, belonging, precisely, to Giulio Romano's atelier. The pyramidal scheme of the hagiographic composition constitutes a direct reference to the lesson of Leonardo and Raphael, who had, so to speak, set the guidelines for the realization of similar subjects (Holy Families). Direct, in fact, is the comparison between our painting, Giulio Romano's matrix, and Raphael's "Madonna of the Pearl," currently housed in the Prado Museum in Madrid, initially (as of 1656) kept at the monastery-pantheon of the Escorial and, so named by King Philip IV of Spain, because it was considered the most valuable work in his collections. The fact that the "Madonna of the Pearl," datable to around 1518-1520, appears to have been created by Raphael with the collaboration of his favorite pupil, Giulio Romano, and that, later on, it was the subject of a very personal reinterpretation by the Urbino's disciple, allows us to make some observations about our panel as well, concerning similarities and differences in a subject that, apparently, must have enjoyed particular iconographic fortune. First of all, compared to the "Madonna of the Pearl" and, in full continuity, on the other hand, with the "Madonna of the Cat," a total abandonment of cold colors in favor of a sharp and dramatic chiaroscuro is evident in the workshop replica in question (cf. Stefania Pasti, Giulio Romano and the Madonna of the Cat: an iconographic study in "Storia dell' Arte" 31, 2012). If the scene follows Raphael's pyramidal scheme, if it is equally rich in emotional resonances, the chromatic tones of the robes, from those of the Virgin to those of St. Anne, are diluted in search of a greater, though always composite, stylistically balanced, dramatic quality. E Measurements : H 76 x 63