The Holy Family,
oil on canvas, 45.5 x 62.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Corsini collection, Rome, no. 157 (according to a label on the reverse);
Corsini collection, Florence (1886);
and thence by descent to Beatrice Pandolfini (1868-1955), daughter of Tommaso Corsini, Florence, no. 306 (according to a label on the reverse);
Collection of Falcone Lucifero, Prime Minister of the Royal House of Savoy (1898-1997), Rome;
where acquired by the present owner

According to a label on the reverse the present painting was once part of the Corsini collection in Florence and it may be the work mentioned in an inventory of 1886 (see U. Medici, Catalogo della Galleria dei principi Corsini in Firenze, Florence 1886). The painting is described in the ninth room of the Florentine palace as: ‘451. CONCA SEBASTIANO. […] Sopra a della paglia vedesi seduto il bambino Gesù, sorretto con la mano destra dalla divina madre, la quale con la sinistra tiene sollevato un bianco lino, guardando il suo sposo Giuseppe. Mez. fig. metà dal vero’ [‘451. CONCA SEBASTIANO. […] the Christ Child is seen seated on hay, the divine mother holds him with her right hand, and with her left she lifts the white veil while she gazes at her husband Joseph. Half figure, half life-size’]. As well as the description, the size also corresponds with the present painting.

A second label indicates the subsequent ownership of Beatrice Pandolfini (1868-1955), the daughter of Tommaso Corsini (1835-1919), who probably came into possession of many paintings from her father’s collection by inheritance. Beatrice married Count Roberto Pandolfini in 1889.

This composition belongs to a type that was widely used in Venetian eighteenth century painting. Similar examples include the work of Antonio Balestra (1666-1740) such as the Madonna and Child in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (inv. no. 970). The sweet gesture of the Virgin lifting a corner of the white veil upon which the Christ Child lies is similar: indeed, both works belonging to a cultural ambit reflecting the example of Correggio. In the present painting, the darkness of the setting, illuminated by the bright light emanating from the Child, demonstrates the author’s study of Correggio, and especially the latter’s work La Notte in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden (inv. no. 152). The Correggesque softness of the present painting is joined here by a modelled and articulated sense of form and volume, such as determined the taste for classical painting in the eighteenth century.

We are grateful to Massimo Pirondini for his help in cataloguing this lot.