Follower RAFAEL DE SANZIO (Urbino, Italy, 1483 - Rome, 1520), c. 1600.

Follower RAFAEL DE SANZIO (Urbino, Italy, 1483 - Rome, 1520), c. 1600.
"Madonna del Passeggio," c. 1600.
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Measurements: 92 x 65 cm; 105 x 78 cm (frame).
This painting sinks its aesthetic in the iconic "Madonna del Passeggio" by Raphael de Sanzio, dating from 1516-1518 and currently part of the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh. The composition is intended to allude to the chance encounter, narrated in the apocryphal Gospels, of the Holy Family during their return from the flight to Egypt with the young John the Baptist, already a hermit in the desert. In fact, walking through the countryside, the full-figured Virgin seems to present her son to the Baptist, who scrutinizes him closely, in a very intense affectionate exchange; Joseph glimpses the scene as, with a bundle tied to a stick over his shoulder, he walks behind a bush. The Baptist, as usual, wears only camel skin, holds a cross that qualifies him as Precursor and the parchment with the inscription "Ecce Agnus Dei". As can be seen, the work preserves the essence of the original, framing the scene in a misty landscape, whose aesthetics is largely reminiscent of Leonardo's work.
The theme of the Holy Family, more reduced than that of the "Parentage of Mary" because it includes only Jesus, the Virgin and St. John or St. Anne, is very common in Christian art, also presenting a number of variants. In the case of Mary, Child and St. Joseph, it is a theme that appears already in germ in the Nativities of the Middle Ages, but is not developed and popularized until the Renaissance, spreading to a much greater extent in the Baroque thanks to the Counter-Reformation. Until the 17th century it was common for the figure of St. Joseph to appear slightly "separated" from Mary and Jesus, alluding to his role as the putative father of Christ. Already since the Renaissance it was frequent to link the image of the Child Jesus with that of the very young Saint John, visually alluding to the later relationship between both (Baptism, Precursor, etc.), despite the fact that, according to the Gospels, Christ meets Saint John only when they see each other at the Jordan River, before the Baptism. To add St. John the Baptist, texts are taken from the Meditations of St. Bonaventure, who recounts that, in Bethlehem, after the Flight into Egypt, the Holy Family stopped at Elizabeth's house, and the two children played together, with St. John already showing a striking respect for Jesus, as if he could glimpse the future and the true identity of the Child. Thus, it is from this source that the works of Raphael Sanzio, Murillo, etc. derive.