The Holy Family with Four Saints and a Female Donor
Antonio Rimpatta·c. 1510
Historical Context
Antonio Rimpatta painted this Holy Family with Four Saints and a Female Donor around 1510, a devotional painting from early sixteenth-century northern Italy. Rimpatta was a painter active in Bologna and the Emilian region, working in the tradition of Francesco Francia and Lorenzo Costa. The inclusion of a female donor indicates this was commissioned for private devotion, and the arrangement of saints suggests specific personal or family dedications.
Technical Analysis
The oil on panel demonstrates the refined Bolognese painting tradition with smooth, luminous surface and gentle modeling of forms. The balanced composition arranging the holy figures around the central Madonna and Child follows established Emilian conventions for devotional painting.
Provenance
Acquired either by James Hughes Smith-Barry (1746?–1801) or by his eldest son John Smith-Barry (b. 1793), both of Marbury Hall, near Northwich, Cheshire, and Fota Island, County Cork, Ireland; by descent to Arthur Hugh Smith-Barry (d. 1925), first and last Lord Barrymore; by descent to his daughter the Honorable Mrs. Dorothy Elizabeth Bell of Fota Island, County Cork, Ireland; sold Sotheby’s, London, June 21, 1933, no. 44 (ill.), as Boltraffio. Sold Sotheby’s, London, March 23, 1960, no. 116 (ill.), as Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, to H. M. Calmann [according to annotated sale catalogue, Ryerson Library, the Art Institute of Chicago]. H. M. Calmann, London, 1960–63; sold by Calmann to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1963.
