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Catalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 117: 

FORMER INV. NOS.: 30 (B. 1830s); KM 1040.

TECHNICAL NOTES: The support consists of three hardwood
boards, glued together. The panel has a slight convex warp. It is
provided with new crossbars. The wood is worm-eaten and the
verso has been treated with a coating of wax. There are four cracks
in the panel: one, 27 cm from the left, that runs vertically through
the entire panel; a second one running from the upper border, 20
cm long, 54 cm from the left; a third one, 20 cm from the left,
that extends from the bottom; and a fourth one running from the
bottom, 54 cm from the left. The ground is white. Along the cracks
there are some small paint losses. There are a few retouches. The
varnish is yellowed. Documented restoration: 1965: The panel has
cracked. Crossbars removed. Panel glued together. New crossbars.
Impregnation with wax. Cleaning. Retouching. Varnish.

PROVENANCE: Byström 1853; Grubb 1857.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Byström 1853a, p. 12, no. 149; NM Cat. 1867, p. 2;
NM Cat. 1990, p. 417.

In the Byström Collection, and later when the
work was sold to one of the Nationalmuseum’s
curators, Per Wilhelm Grubb, this painting was
erroneously attributed to the Venetian painter
Leandro Bassano (1557–1622).¹ The panel passed
to the Nationalmuseum in 1857, where it was
referred to the Roman school.² An additional
indication was given in the 1861 inventory of the
Museum’s collections, where the painting was
considered a copy of a work by Raphael,³ and later
it was attributed to his school.⁴

The panel depicts an intimate moment involving
the Holy Family, together with the infant
St John the Baptist. The protagonists are tightly
arranged against golden-green folded drapery,
which reveals to the right a serene landscape with
a fortified village. The focus is on the Virgin and
the Child she is nursing. The Madonna has the
fingers of her right hand between the leaves of a
book, possibly a reference to the Book of Wisdom
with its prophecy about Christ’s passion (Wis. 2).
The Holy Child’s parents focus their attention on
the infant St John, who carries a small cross and
a scroll with the words “Ecce Agnus Dei” (John
1:29), which proclaim Christ’s future sacrifice.

The Nationalmuseum panel has been connected
with the painter Orazio Alfani (c. 1510–1583),⁵
an eccentric and little-known artist native from
Perugia. Orazio was apprenticed to his father
Domenico Alfani (c. 1480–c. 1553), a collaborator
of Raphael’s, though Domenico’s oeuvre shows elements
reminiscent of the work of the Florentine
painters Fra Bartolommeo and Rosso Fiorentino.
Owing to the close cooperation between Domenico
and Orazio Alfani, the latter’s works are often
mistaken for those of his father, even though
Orazio distinguished himself by his Mannerist
design, with influences from Rosso Fiorentino,
Raffaellino del Colle and Parmigianino, and his
somewhat inconsistent style is due to multiple
cultural influences.⁶

A comparison between the Nationalmuseum
painting and the panel in the Galleria Nazionale
dell’Umbria in Perugia, Madonna and Child with
the Infant St John the Baptist, St Joseph, St Francis
of Assisi and St Antony of Padua, once attributed
to Orazio and today referred to Domenico
Alfani,⁷ reveals a number of similarities, not least
the Virgin’s refined face with its lowered eyes.
Another panel, The Mystical Marriage of St Catherine
in the Louvre Museum, attributed to Orazio
Alfani and dated 1549,⁸ presents resemblances
in the details, like the excessively long fingers of
St Catherine and the Virgin, which recall those
of the Madonna in the Nationalmuseum panel;
other similarities are the golden-green drapery
and the open landscape beyond.

A more compelling comparison, though, is with
the Holy Family with the Infant St John the Baptist,
in a private collection, identified by Fausto Nicolai
and ascribable to Giorgio Vasari or his circle.⁹
The important similarities in the composition
and execution suggest this painting as a possible
prototype for the Nationalmuseum panel, and
it gives a clear indication of the latter’s origin in
the mid 16th century Tuscan figurative tradition.
An additional example is the work on the same
subject by Orazio Porta (c. 1540–1612/16), one of
the closest collaborators of Vasari, in the church
of Santa Maria della Fraternita, in Foiano della
Chiana, which further indicates the spread of
the composition and stylistic features that can be
found in the Nationalmuseum painting.
se

1 RA, E I a: 280, Finansdep. Konseljakt, ärende nr. II,
1852-05-26, “Katalog öfver framlidne Professor J. N.
Byströms Tafvel-Samling”, no. 30 “Heliga Familjen af L.
Bassano, 150 risdaler banco”; Byström 1853a, p. 12, no. 149;
SSA, Stockholms Auktionsverk, A I:a, “Auktionsprotokoll
1853”.
2 NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, D: 1, “Inventarier över
Kongl. Museum, 1803–1857”.
3 NM Archives, Kongl. Museums arkiv, D: 17 “Konceptkatalog
över måleri- antik- och skulptursamlingen 1861”.
4 NM Archives, Nationalmusei avdelningar, D 4 eca: 1, “I
löpande förteckning över oljefärgstavlorna Nationalmuseum,
1–500”.
5 NM Archives, Nationalmusei avdelningar, D 4 ecb: 3
“Svenska Statens tafvelinventarium”, A, nos. 801–1200
6 Gnoli 1923, pp. 16–22; Santi 1985, p. 181.
7 Domenico Alfani, Madonna and Child with the Infant St
John the Baptist, St Joseph, St Francis of Assisi and St Antony
of Padua, oil on panel, 245 × 177, Galleria Nazionale
dell’Umbria, Perugia, inv. no. 373, Bon Valsassina and
Garibaldi 1994, pp. 265–266.
8 Orazio Alfani, The Mystical Marriage of St Catherine, 1549,
oil on panel, 212 × 148, Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv. no. 40.
9 Nicolai 2008, p. 73. I want to thank Fausto Nicolai for the
valuable information he has provided. [End]

Utforska konstnärer och föremål som finns i Nationalmuseums samlingar.

Explore the artists and artworks of Nationalmuseum Sweden.

Okänd | Den heliga Familjen med Johannesbarnet | Nationalmuseum

Unknown | The Holy Family with the Infant St John | Nationalmuseum

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2012

Titel (sv): Den heliga Familjen med Johannesbarnet
Titel (en): The Holy Family with the Infant St John
Titel (en): The Holy Family with the Infant St John the Baptist

Title (sv): Den heliga Familjen med Johannesbarnet
Title (en): The Holy Family with the Infant St John
Title (en): The Holy Family with the Infant St John the Baptist