This vibrant and refined copper of the Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist and an angel carrying a basket of flowers was likely painted in Rome in the early 17th century. Though of a high quality and rendered with characteristics that are both Italian and northern, its author remains unknown. According to a label on the reverse of the work, this copper once held an attribution to the Sienese artist Francesco Vanni (1563-1610), who studied in Rome under Federico Barocci. Barocci’s works were widely known and admired among collectors and artists, and many of his most successful compositions were engraved. Cornelis Cort’s engraving after Barocci’s Madonna della Gatta in the National Gallery in London served as inspiration for the author of the present copper (fig. 1). The figure of Saint Joseph, the basket in the lower left foreground, and the background setting all come from Cort’s engraving, which was printed in Rome in 1577. The central grouping of the Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist relates to Guido Reni’s Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist painted in 1606 probably for the Borghese family but today in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.[1] A number of engravings were made after this composition by Reni, including one made later in the 17th century by Jean Boulanger (fig. 2). The beautiful figure of the angel holding the basket of flowers in the lower left corner relates to a detail from a now lost painting by Taddeo Zuccaro, recorded in reverse in an engraving by Cornelis Cort published in Rome in 1568 (fig. 3).

Another version of this composition, also on copper and of comparable dimensions, has been attributed to Marten Pepijn.[2] Pepyn was born in Antwerp, where he spent the majority of his career. As a young artist, however, Pepyn travelled to Rome, recorded there between about 1596-1600.

We are grateful to Professor David Ekserdjian of the University of Leicester for his assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.

Left: Fig. 1: Cornelis Cort, after Federico Barocci’s Madonna del Gatto, engraving, 1577, British Museum, inv. No. V,8.159.

Middle: Fig 2. Jean Boulanger, after Guido Reni’s Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist, engraving, 17th century, British Museum, inv. No. U,3.103.

Right: Fig. 3. Cornelis Cort, after Taddeo Zuccaro’s Birth of the Virgin, engraving, 1568, British Museum, inv. No. U,5.139.

[1] Inv. no. 524, oil on copper, 25 by 19 cm. See D.S. Pepper, Guido Reni, Oxford 1984, pp. 218-219, cat. no. 21, reproduced fig. 20.
[2] Oil on copper, 27.5 by 30 cm. This painting was sold in Paris, Piasa, 23 June 2006, lot 246. See https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/119906.