Italian school; 17th century.

Italian school; XVII century.
"Madonna of Providence".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It presents faults in the pictorial layer.
Measurements: 47 x 37 cm; 64.5 x 55 cm (frame).
Bust of Mary cut out and highlighted on a neutral background. In this image of devotional character, the author presents the Virgin dressed in red tunic and transparent veil, all of them chosen by the painter with a symbolic intention since the red color is allusive to the passion of Christ. The facial features of the Madonna, the modeling of the magnificent mantle and, above all, the coloring of it, are reminiscent of the Italian school noted for its classicism.
The work follows the model of Scipione Pulzone (Gaeta, 1544 - Rome, 1598) which is in the Church of San Carlo in Rome. Sicipione Pulzone began his artistic training as a pupil of Jacopino del Conte, although he soon preferred to take as references for his art personalities such as Girolamo Muziano or Siciolante. His taste for descriptive effects led him to study Flemish and Venetian models, from which he extracted a rich palette of colors. However, it was in Raphael where he found his greatest influence reflected in the use of defined contours and schematic clarity. His art recalls above all the earliest Raphael, the one that refers us to the style of a Perugino or a Domenico Ghirlandaio. That is why his art is largely revisionist, since his sources are not to be found in his immediate predecessors, but in the great masters of the late Quattrocento. In 1584 Pulzone traveled to Naples and Florence. In the latter city he came into contact with local artists of a similar sensibility to his own.