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closed A Renaissance masterpiece: the Madonna and Child by Francesco Francia

The show

To celebrate the Christmas holidays, in the 'Sala dei Quattro Continenti' (Room 15) on the first floor of the Museum, visitors are welcomed by the Madonna and Child and an angel presenting Saint John the Baptist, c. 1505, by Francesco Raibolini, called Francia (Bologna, c. 1447–1517). Painter and goldsmith, Raibolini made his debut as a goldsmith and then devoted himself to painting starting in 1487 and set up a prosperous workshop three years later. The finesse of the goldsmith is manifested in the first works where Tuscan and Ferrara influences are evident; subsequently, his limpid and accurate art appears inspired by the classicism of the painting of Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci, known as il Perugino (Città della Pieve, 1446 - Fontignano, 1523). The theme of the Nativity permeates the painting by Francia which depicts the Virgin according to a traditional iconography, dressed in red with a blue mantle, caught in the act of presenting the blessing baby Jesus; next to her a small St. John, recognizable by the tunic and the rod surmounted by the cross, is supported by an angel as he climbs over a balustrade to indicate Christ. The baby Jesus is also a Salvator Mundi since he holds the sphere in his left hand and blesses with his right hand, thus alluding to a circular time that is repeated through his birth and earthly life. The composition is linked by a play of tender gazes that involve the viewer in the scene and at the same time foreshadow the fate of Jesus' passion. Behind the figures we can glimpse a rural landscape, which opens as far as the eye can see up to the blue mountains. The work is usually kept in the circular hall on the first floor of Villa Cerruti, and has been known to critics since the nineteenth century, when it belonged to one of the most important private galleries of the time, the one begun in Paris by the count and banker Swiss James-Alexandre de Pourtalès and later expanded by his son Edmond. The panel was still at the Count's heirs at the beginning of the twentieth century, when it was mentioned by Adolfo Venturi in a note in his History of Italian Art. It was later bought by the American tycoon Clarence Mackay. The work passed again on the antiques market in the sixties and seventies of the twentieth century, then in 1976 it was acquired by the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk to finally arrive in 1989 in the collection of Francesco Federico Cerruti.

Timetable and tickets

Address

Piazzale Mafalda di Savoia, 2
10098 Rivoli

Contacts

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Until 18 August 2024

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Until 08 September 2024

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