Sassoferrato
Roman (born in Sassoferrato), 1609–1685

Virgin and Child with St. Elizabeth and the Child Baptist, 1640s ca.
Oil on canvas
29 x 38 1/2"

Glasgow Museums, Mrs. John Graham Gilbert Bequest, 1877
584

COMMENTS

Giovanni Battista Salvo, called Sassoferrato, was one of the most severely classical artists of seventeenth-century Rome. As an artist who specialized in painting the Virgin he often copied models by earlier masters. This painting, based on Annibale Carracci's etching "The Madonna of the Bowl" from 1606, shows the Virgin with the Child, the infant St John drinking from a porcelain bowl, and St Elizabeth recognizing for the first time the true nature of Christ. The restrained gestures and expression of this intimate scene provide a sharp contrast to the rhetorical gesturing and dramatic light and color usually associated with the High Baroque.

- Heiner Krellig, The National Inventory of Continental European Paintings
http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=87817

SBMA CURATORIAL LABELS

In 17th-century Counter-Reformation Rome, there was renewed interest in making the sacred stories come to life by representing the holy figures as real people. Sassoferrato accomplishes this goal in this charmingly intimate and informal scene in which the Christ Child, sitting on his Mother’s lap, offers a drink to the young St. John the Baptist. Behind them, St. Elizabeth registers a mother’s surprise or dismay at her toddler being so grabby.

The broad, simple, sculptural forms evoke the great Renaissance artist Raphael. An interesting touch is the blue and white porcelain bowl. Its design looks Persian. It would have been one of the gifts given to the Christ Child by one of the three Kings (the Magi) who came from exotic locales. Real Persian, Turkish, and Chinese porcelains were being imported into Europe at this time and they were very rare and precious.

- Botticelli, Titian, and Beyond, 2015