Madonna and Child with Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist
Jacopino del Conte·c. 1535
Historical Context
Jacopino del Conte's Madonna and Child with Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist from around 1535 is a major devotional painting by this Florentine Mannerist who settled in Rome. Jacopino was deeply influenced by Michelangelo, whom he knew personally, and by Sebastiano del Piombo, absorbing their monumental figure styles into his own synthesis. The Holy Family with Elizabeth and the young Baptist was a popular subject in Italian devotional painting.
Technical Analysis
Jacopino's oil-on-panel technique demonstrates the Mannerist approach to the devotional subject with muscular, sculpturally modeled figures and rich, deep coloring. The complex figure grouping and smooth, polished surfaces reflect his dual debt to Michelangelo's drawing and Sebastiano del Piombo's Venetian colorism.
Provenance
Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955], Florence and Rome, by the late 1920s;[1] by inheritance to Count Alessandro Augusto Contini Bonacossi and his siblings; (Stanley Moss and Co., New York and Riverdale-on-Hudson), by at least 1974;[2] sold 21 February 1985 to NGA. [1] Provenance according to S.J. Freedberg, "Jacopino del Conte: An Early Masterpiece for the National Gallery of Art", _Studies in the History of Art_, 18 (1985): 65. See also the letter of 16 December 1984 from Stanley Moss to Sydney J. Freedberg (copy in NGA curatorial files). The painting was one of those released for export under the convention made between the Contini heirs and the Italian government on 21 May 1968. [2] Stanley Moss sent a transparency of the painting to the Gallery in 1974 (see his letter of 23 April 1974 to Sheldon Grossman, in NGA curatorial files).
_-_Portr%C3%A4t_des_Pio_des_Mirandola_-_1400_-_F%C3%BChrermuseum.jpg&width=600)
