The Holy Family with the Young Saint John the Baptist and Saint Elizabeth (?)

This painting for a domestic interior corresponds to the popular Renaissance theme known as a “sacra conversazione,” or “sacred conversation,” meaning the holy figures are placed in a unified space and appear to speak to one another. Here they are seen very close up, but the same subject for a public altarpiece would depict the figures at full-length and father from the viewer. The space is a seemingly small room pierced by a window opening onto a distant landscape. At the center is the Christ Child, unusually seated upon a small box and presenting his mother, the Virgin Mary, with a goldfinch—a popular symbol of his death and resurrection—tied to leash. At the left is Mary’s husband and Christ’s earthly father, Saint Joseph, looking out toward the viewer. At the right, Christ’s cousin, John the Baptist, touches Christ’s leg while a female saint, possibly John’s mother Elizabeth (typically represented as an old woman), stands behind.

The painting is by Antonio Solario, a native of Venice but active in various regions of Italy in the early 1500s, including Lombardy in the north, the Marches in central Italy, and Campania in the south, near Naples. Solario’s itinerant career led to his being called “Lo Zingaro,” or “the gypsy,” by his contemporaries. For two similar paintings by Antonio, see his "Madonna and Child" compositions at the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, and the Castello Sforzesco, Milan.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

William T. / Henry Walters Collection, Baltimore, prior to 1909 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.