Giovan Battista Salvi known as "il Sassoferrato" (1609 - 1685). Circle/workshop
Madonna with Sleeping Child
Oil on canvas (84 x 66 cm - Framed (19th century) 112 x 95 cm.
Full details at the following - link -
The painting presented here, executed in the second half of the 17th century with good quality execution and refined drafting, depicts the Madonna in adoration as she gently holds the sheet on which the sleeping Child is lying, with a gesture of protection and pride, which facilitates an atmosphere of intimate recollection.
The compositional prototype was conceived by the great Bolognese master Guido Reni (1575 - 1642), as evidenced by a print made by Francois de Poilly (Paris 1623-1693) (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/667926). Like many of Reni's creations, it was later taken up and popularized by subsequent versions executed by his students and followers, such as the 'Madonna and Child' attributed to Francesco Gessi (Bologne, 1588 - 1649) and now at the Louvre (https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010061140).
This subject, although with some variations - often of the pose of the sleeping child, facing upwards as in this version, rather than reclining on the side or of the position of the Virgin, with her hands clasped in prayer - was so successful that it became the favorite model for countless works intended for private devotion during the seventeenth century.
One of the greatest promoters of Reni's images was undoubtedly Giovan Battista Salvi known as "il Sassoferrato" (1609 - 1685) who, in his thriving workshop, took up the subjects but reworked them with his own, well-identifiable style, characterized by a marked elegance, sweetness and formal perfection, in particular of the faces, managing to obtain an effect of incredible intensity.
Born in the Marche region, Salvi developed his activity in Rome, following the dictates of the classicist sacred painting of the Bolognese school of Reni, Carracci and Domenichino, but managing to have an autonomous style and therefore well distinguishable. The Madonnas coming out of his workshop, with the pallor of the face and the bright color of the cloak, the sweetness of the gazes and the grace of the features, will provide inspiration, two centuries later, to the Pre-Raphaelites and numerous other artists of the nineteenth century.
Our canvas is in good condition, although it shows some old retouches and small pictorial lacks, as can be seen from the published photographs, which however do not affect its beauty. Work complete with a pleasant 19th-century wooden frame.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The work is sold with a certificate of authenticity and descriptive iconographic sheet.
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