Holy Family

copy after Tisi Benvenuto called Garofalo

(Garofalo or Ferrara 1476 - Ferrara 1559)

This painting cannot be identified in the inventories until the one from the nineteenth century. Previously believed to be a workshop painting, it was compared to the Holy Family in the Benedictine monastery in Oxford, considered to be the model for the Borghese work.

Object details

Commentary

In the catalogue of the Galleria’s paintings edited by Paola Della Pergola (1955), the scholar links the work to the only entry in the fideicommissary inventory that describes a similar composition, specifically a ‘Madonna and Child with St Joseph, by Benvenuto Gherardo, 3 palmi, 2 oncie wide, 2 palmi high’. Attribution to an artist other than Garofalo, and this is not the only instance of this kind with reference to works attributed to him or his followers in the collection (see the paintings attributed to the unknown Pietro Giulianello, inv. 235 and 244), could also point to a previous owner.

The painting would seem to be a copy of a work in the Benedictine monastery in Oxford (Russell 1972), although the composition does differ in a few small ways and the pronounced handling of chiaroscuro has suggested to some scholars that a work by Dosso would probably be a better candidate for its model (Herrmann Fiore 2002).

The composition is that of a typical Venetian Holy Family, with the figures portrayed half-length, and offers a very intimate image of the family, portrayed in a moment of relaxation and calm for the Christ Child and his father, who holds him up and unwittingly reveals his nudity by holding back the hem of the white cloth with a richly decorated border, and mother, who is presenting her child with a rose – her traditional symbol – to catch his interest and stimulate play.

Scholars are divided between those who consider it autograph (Della Pergola 1955, Berenson 1968, Fioravanti Baraldi 1993) and those for whom it was painted by a follower (Venturi 1893, Longhi 1928).

Lara Scanu