Lot number 3532 - Auction 155
MARIA MIT DEM SCHLAFENDEN CHRISTUSKIND, DEM HEILIGEN JOSEPH UND DEM JOHANNESKNABEN

GIOVANNI BATTISTA TAGLIASACCHI August 26, 1696 Borgo San Donnino - December 3, 1737 Castelbosco MARY WITH THE SLEEPING CHILD JESUS, SAINT JOSEPH, AND SAINT JOHN THE CHILD Oil on canvas (old relined). 92.5 x 72 cm (F. 110.5 x 90.5 cm). Min. old rest., min. old retouching. Frame. In quiet, heartfelt devotion, the Mother of God appears with the sleeping Christ Child, whose body rests almost horizontally across her arms. Saint Joseph emerges from the semi-darkness and gazes at the child in reserved contemplation, while the little John the Baptist in the foreground points to the Passion with his cross staff. The soft, velvety modeling of the flesh tones, the delicately blurred transitions in Mary's face, and the lyrical tranquility of the composition clearly refer to early 18th-century Bolognese painting. Stylistically, the work is closely related to Carlo Cignani, whose classicist idealization is transformed here into a more personal, sensitive visual language. The warm tones, the intimate contemplation of the figures, and the almost weightless positioning of the child are particularly indicative of the hand of Giovanni Battista Tagliasacchi, a close friend and artistic companion of Cignani. The painting is likely to have been created in the first third of the 18th century. A sensitive devotional painting of great tranquility and poetic coherence. Provenance: Private collection, Hesse.