Giacomo Francia

Count Aeneas Sylvius de Caprara (1631-1701), according to a wax seal on the reverse;
Prof. Hans Best. Munich.

The panel has later additions of c. 1cm on all sides and of 2 cm on the left hand edge. The panel is in sound and stable condition and has two vertical joins, 8.5 and 9.5 cms in from the left and right hand edges respectively, and these are held by modern horizontal battens affixed to the reverse. An old vertical hairline crack runs parallel and 4cm in from the left hand join. The paint surface is now dirty and covered in a layer of discoloured varnish, and is in excellent condition. The only damages are a series of scrapes and losses along the left hand edge, and some old minor losses of 25 mm or less, for example, on the Virgin's left eye and lip and on the forehead of Saint Joseph. Some equally minor but more recent losses are to be found lower left and beside the tassles on the cushion. No recent interventions at all are visible under ultra violet light and only a few scattered minor spot retouchings are visible to the naked eye, for example along the left edge and to the Virgin's hair.
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This rediscovered Holy Family with Saint Jerome can be securely placed in the oeuvre of Giacomo Francia who trained in the workshop of his father Francesco. With his brother Giulio he took over the running of the workshop on his father's death in 1517. Giacomo often reworked his father's compositions adapting them to more contemporary Raphaelesque models, but in the present painting his own individual style can clearly be felt. Gone are the Ferrarese landscapes of the 1520s and more idiosyncratic elements are introduced: the turned torso and crossed legs of the infant Jesus are surely a development from the more static elements of the previous generation's compositions.¹

We are grateful to Dott. Emilio Negro and Dottssa.Nicosetta Roio for endorsing the attribution to Giacomo Francia.


1. See for the figure of the Infant Jesus the same pose in E. Negro and N. Roio, Francesco Francia e la sua scuola, p. 299, cat. no. 271, reproduced p. 300.