The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist (Il Silenzio) (after a presentation drawing by Michelangelo)
circle of Marcello Venusti (Como c.1512 – Rome 1579)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1560 - 1599
Materials
Oil on copper
Measurements
406 x 305 mm (16 x 12 in)
Place of origin
Italy
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk
NT 852000
Caption
This painting is one of many versions of this composition produced by Venusti and his studio. It is derived from a drawing by Michelangelo called the Madonna del Silenzio, in the Duke of Portland's Collection at Welbeck Abbey. The scene foretells the death of Christ and his slumped repose on his mother’s lap foretells the Pietà. The marble, panelled interior looks like a sarcophagus (burial casket). The open book is the Bible, the Old Testament foretelling Christ’s birth and death, and the New Testament offering the promise of redemption through Him.
Summary
Oil painting on copper, The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist (Il Silenzio) (after a presentation drawing by Michelangelo), circle of Marcello Venusti (Como c.1512 – Rome 1579), late 16th century. The Madonna, wearing a red robe and blue drapery is seated in an interior with the Child lying asleep on her lap. She holds a book in her left hand open at Psalm 85.11 and lifts a transparent veil from the Child's body, a reference to the revelation of Truth. Saint John, wrapped in an animal skin, is on the left, behind the bench, holding a finger to his lips as a gesture for silence and Joseph on the right. Christ is slumped across his mother's lap in a pose that prefigures the Lamentation or Pietà when his dead body is placed there. A famous presentation red chalk drawing by Michelangelo of around 1538-40 was the design that was basis for painted versions by his followers. It was known as Madonna del Silenzio (Il Silenzio) or 'Silentium' (Silence) because of the gesture of Saint John on the left putting his left index finger to his lips, whilst the Holy Family contemplate the sleeping Christ Child. Another of many versions, attributed to Venusti, is in the National Galley and one, without a landscape background and with putto-angels pulling aside drapery on both sides at the top is by Lavinia Fontana in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool and another, with an extensive landscape, attributed to Bacchiacca, is in the Ashmolean, Oxford. It is one of innumerable (over twenty) versions of the composition produced by Venusti and his studio, which derives from Michelangelo's drawing in the Duke of Portland's Collection, Welbeck Abbey.
Provenance
Probably Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol; recorded in the list handwritten by the 1st Marquess, circa 1837, as in the dressing room: 'Holy Family - the child is lying asleep across the lap of its mother - a small picture - the composition and drawing after a design by Michal Angelo, painted by Venusti' ; Sothebys, The East Wing, Ickworth, Suffolk, sale catalogue,11 -12 June 1996, lot no. 464
Credit line
Ickworth, The Bristol Collection (acquired through the National Land Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1956)
Makers and roles
circle of Marcello Venusti (Como c.1512 – Rome 1579), artist Lavinia Fontana (Bologna 1552 - Rome 1614), artist
References
Tolnay 1960 C.de Tolnay, Michelangelo, 1960, vol.5, plate 158