Virgin with Child & St John, oil on marble, late 16th c. Florentine school

Late 16th c. Florentine school
Virgin with Child and St John the Baptiste
Oil on white marble,
h. 41,5 cm, w. 32 cm
17th Louis XIV carved giltwood frame
Framed: h. 53 cm, w. 43 cm

Seated on the ground in a hilly landscape with a blazing sky, the Virgin is dressed in a pink shirt over a yellow blouse and a dark green-blue skirt. As a sign of humility, she is not wearing shoes and her bare foot can be seen under the folds of her skirt. She holds Jesus on her knees, embracing him with her right arm. The Virgin's face, full of gentleness and dignity, shows that she already agrees to sacrifice her only son. To the right of the composition stands the little Saint John the Baptist, dressed in camel skin, recalling his future life of penance and preaching in the desert.
In his left hand he holds his attribute, the reed cross, which he presents to Christ .prefiguring the Passion of Jesus. He points with the index finger of his right hand to the child who is watching him attentively, while Saint John, full of melancholy, turns his gaze to the left.

Our anonymous artist from the Florentine school is inspired by the works of Andrea del Sarto (Florence, 1486-1530), the figures of the Virgin and Jesus are borrowed from "The Holy Family" preserved in the Louvre (inv. 1515), while the figure of Saint John the Baptist is partly taken from the Corsini Madonna, the original of which is lost, but a copy is preserved in the Lord Egremont Collection at Petworth House, West Sussex (Duke of Buckingham Collection).

Our work is original in that it is painted in oil on a white marble slab.
Marble as a painting medium was considered eternal, unlike wood or canvas, and enjoyed great popularity in Italy from the mid-16th century onwards, with some regions devoting themselves more to slate, such as Verona and Venice, and Florentine and Romanesque painters turning to marble, alabaster, paesine stone and hard stones.