Madonna and Child with Saint in the Clouds

Lanfranco Giovanni (1582-1647)
17th century, Oil on canvas

This work comes either from the Colonna di Sciarra collection, which was dispersed in the second half of the 19th century, or from the collection of a descendant of this prominent Roman family. The central group in the painting, the Mother and Child, shows stylistic similarities with works by Giovanni Lanfranco, the great painter from Parma who flourished in early 17th-century Rome alongside the Carracci – he had collaborated in his native city with Agostino, and Annibale involved him in several projects - becoming one of the major figures of the Baroque period. The figure of the old man to the right of the Virgin is probably to be identified as St. Joseph, thus making the image a depiction of the Holy Family.