(Tramuschio?, doc. from 1517–1548 Ferrara)
Holy Family and Cherubs
oil on panel, 36.5 x 30 cm, framed

We are grateful to Alessandro Ballarin for confirming the attribution and for dating the present painting to approximately 1517.

This Holy Family and Cherubs is an example of an early work by Battista Dossi when he was still under the influence of his older brother Dosso. It can be compared to the Holy families and a shepherd (one in the Cleveland Museum of Art (38.7 x 32 cm), the other sold at Christie’s, London, 5th July 1991, lot 82 (33 x 43.5 cm)) and the Oration of Christ in the Garden from the collection of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara (42.5 x 33 cm), and the Infant Christ learns to walk in the Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham (43.8 x 42.1 cm); all these works all date approximately from 1516 to 1517.

The present compositional solution features in some early works by Dosso Dossi; in the altarpiece of the Archdiocese from approximately 1514, in the Da Varano family chapel in Santa Maria in Vado, Ferrara; in the altarpiece of San Martino di Codigoro, now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence (inv. Depositi No. 7, 153 x 114 cm) and in the altarpiece of the Pinacoteca Civica Domenico Inzaghi in Budrio, Emilia-Romagna (inv. 22, 14 x 82 cm), both dating approximately to 1517.

The iconography of the Madonna and Child surrounded by light, adopted first by Raphael in the Madonna of Foligno, appears to relate to the passage of the Book of Revelation 12, which reads: “And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”

We are grateful to Alessandro Ballarin for confirming the attribution and for dating the present painting to approximately 1517.

This Holy Family and Cherubs is an example of an early work by Battista Dossi when he was still under the influence of his older brother Dosso. It can be compared to the Holy families and a shepherd (one in the Cleveland Museum of Art (38.7 x 32 cm), the other sold at Christie’s, London, 5th July 1991, lot 82 (33 x 43.5 cm) and the Oration of Christ in the Garden from the collection of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara (42.5 x 33 cm), and the Infant Christ learns to walk in the Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham (43.8 x 42.1 cm); all these works all date approximately from 1516 to 1517.

The present compositional solution features in some early works by Dosso Dossi; in the altarpiece of the Archdiocese from approximately 1514, in the Da Varano family chapel in Santa Maria in Vado, Ferrara; in the altarpiece of San Martino di Codigoro, now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence (inv. Depositi No. 7, 153 x 114 cm) and in the altarpiece of the Pinacoteca Civica Domenico Inzaghi in Budrio, Emilia-Romagna (inv. 22, 14 x 82 cm), both dating approximately to 1517.

The iconography of the Madonna and Child surrounded by light, adopted first by Raphael in the Madonna of Foligno, appears to relate to the passage of the Book of Revelation 12, which reads: “And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”