(Antwerp 1540–1619 Bologna)
The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John, Saint Anne, Saint Anthony the Abbot, Saint Sebastian and Saint Roch,
oil on copper, 58.5 x 45 cm, framed

This copper panel is closely related to an altarpiece of 1606, painted by Calvaert for the Bertalotti altar in the church of San Giuseppe de Vecchi Settuagenari, Bologna, now in the convent church of San Luca, Bologna (oil on canvas, 266 x 172 cm, see S. Twiehaus, Dionisio Calvaert [um 1540-1619]. Die Altarwerke, Berlin 2002, pp. 199-200, cat. no. A9, fig. 26). Calvaert produced a detailed preparatory drawing, probably serving as a modello or presentation piece for the Bertalotti family to approve (Paris, Cabinet des Dessins du Louvre, inv. no. 19.843; see op. cit. Twiehaus, 2002, fig. 27).

The altarpiece follows the drawing’s design almost exactly, but the present painting on copper shows differences. This variant on copper was most probably painted by Calvaert for a private patron. Calvaert sometimes produced replicas or variants of his compositions, particularly late in life (see his painting of Danae in the Pinacoteca in Lucca, signed and dated 1614, which is a variant of an earlier painting of the same subject, datable to circa 1601, in the Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston-upon-Hull; both reproduced by T. Montella, in: V. Fortunati Pietrantonio, Pittura bolognese del ’500, Bologna 1986, vol. II, pp. 708 and 701).