The Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth and Infant John the Baptist
Cesare Magni (c.1495 - c.1534)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1530
Materials
Oil on panel
Measurements
1206 x 952 mm (47 1/2 x 37 1/2 in)
Order this imageCollection
Attingham Park, Shropshire
NT 609018
Caption
In this picture the Virgin and Christ Child are shown in the centre, flanked by Saint Joseph to the right, and Saint Elisabeth with her son the infant John the Baptist to the left. A parrot rests on a stump to the right, behind the Virgin. In the Middle Ages, parrots were often associated with the Virgin, because of the beauty and rarity of the bird. There is a fake monogram on the water-flask in the foreground, which suggests that someone had intended this to look like the work of Leonardo da Vinci. Magni was a follower of Leonardo and Cesare da Sesto. There is a work by Magni of the Madonna and Saints in the Cook Collection, which is clearly by the same hand.
Summary
Oil painting on panel, The Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth and Infant John the Baptist by Cesare Magni (fl.1530-1533), circa 1530. The Virgin Mary is seated in centre beneath a tree, Saint Elizabeth, John's mother, kneels left in right profile with her left hand raised, her son, the naked child Saint John the Baptist standing before her looking up at the Virgin his hands held in prayer. Saint Joseph kneels at the right, with the naked Christ Child standing between him and the Virgin; Christ faces John and raises his right hand in blessing; a flask and stick lie on the ground bottom right, in the top left background are mountains behind a church with a small town on a lake shore; beneath the tree on a stump on the right a popinjay (parrot) is very prominently shown; the right background is dominated by an arched rock formation. The infant cousins meet for the first time when they are both in Egypt.
Provenance
Attingham collection. 1847 Catalogue of Paintings, p.12; 1861 Inventory p.217; 1913 Inventory p.64; bequeathed to the National Trust with the estate, house and contents of Attingham by Thomas Henry Noel-Hill, 8th Baron Berwick (1877-1947) on 15th May 1953.
Credit line
Attingham Park, The Berwick Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
On reverse of panel: Partly obliterated red wax customs seal comprising a double headed eagle with F.I. on a shield over and an encircling inscription (partly broken away): SOSERA VIN ... COLLI, red wax seal indecipherable On reverse of panel (top): 3 On reverse of panel (bottom) : ATT/P/082 On reverse of frame (top): 5 3 On reverse of frame (bottom): ATT/P/082
Makers and roles
Cesare Magni (c.1495 - c.1534), artist