Emilian School Of The 17th Century, San Giovannino

Emilian school of the 17th century

San Giovannino

Oil on canvas, cm 93 x 70 

With cornice7, cm 110 x 8

In this painting of the Emilia region, which openly mentions the classical models by Guido Reni and Guercino, Saint John is represented with his canonical attributes, the lamb symbol of the sacrifice of Christ, a very long and thin cross of sticks and reeds and the robe of camel skins. The holy child is represented as immersed in a lush landscape that ties into the models of the pictorial tradition of Northern Italy of the sixteenth century. The winged putti camped in the upper part of the composition also recall northern Italian models - especially Venetian ones - from the mid-16th century: we need only think of the famous altarpieces for the churches of the Serenissima and neighboring territories. 

The choice to represent the little San Giovannino alone and immersed in a natural landscape - either barren or lush - has its roots in the Italian art of the mid-fifteenth century: Very famous is the model provided by the figurine of the little saint in the famous altarpiece of Santa Lucia de' Magnoli by Domenico Veneziano. The iconographic theme of San Giovannino reaches its peak of success between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as shown by the successful works of Raphael (1517, Musée du Louvre), Rosso Fiorentino (1521, Gallerie degli Uffizi), Andrea del Sarto  (circa 1523, Gallerie degli Uffizi) and Caravaggio (1602, Galleria Doria Pamphili; 1610, Galleria Borghese). 

In the Emilian area, the iconographic theme of Saint John is treated, among others by the painter Elisabetta Sirani in a painting currently at the Scottish National Gallery of Art in Edinburgh. 

The object is in good condition