The Holy Family with Saints John and Catherine c.1540-5
Oil on canvas | 81.9 x 127.0 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 406040
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In the centre the young Baptist offers a basket of fruit and flowers to Christ, who sits across the Virgin's left knee. To the left is Saint Joseph and to the right is Saint Catherine, both are watching Christ. This picture forms a coherent group with two paintings of the Marriage of Saint Catherine, one in the Galleria Querini-Stampalia, Venice, and the other in the Galleria Tadini, Louvre. All three pictures are probably from the first half of the 1540s, that is to say fairly early in Schiavone's career, when he was imitating Titian in colour and forms. The mannerisms of Schiavone's mature style are foreshadowed especially in the pattern-making of rippling highlights - for example, in Saint Joseph's orange robes or the white cloth under Christ.
Provenance
Possibly the painting in Charles I's collection from Wimbledon House valued at £100 as part of the Commonwealth Sale of 1649-52 and reserved (no 2); almost certainly the picture with matching subject and dimensions in the King's Privy Gallery at Whitehall in 1666 (no 141)
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Creator(s)
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
81.9 x 127.0 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
81.9 x 116.6 cm (support (etc), excluding additions)
Category
Object type(s)