Attributed to Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo

Although best known for his philosophical and art historical writings, Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo was also a successful painter. As was frequent with Lombard Mannerists, he emulated the work of Leonardo da Vinci and his closest associates, Bernardino Luini (Lomazzo's brother-in-law), among them. Indeed, Luini produced a slightly smaller version of the present composition (without the inscription) today in Lugano, and the compositional arrangement of the present panel draws inspiration from Luini's Madonna and Child with Saints Barbara and Catherine in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (inv. no. 58).¹ The central figure of Christ is clearly derived from Leonardo's widely-copied Salvador Mundi. The specific subject matter, taken from the Gospel of Matthew, appears remarkably rarely in Renaissance art.²

¹ C. Quattrini, Bernardino Luini, Catalogo generale delle opere, Turin 2019, pp. 402-403, reproduced.

² 19:14. "But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven."