Location

Country: Italy
City: Rome
Place: British Embassy

Thought to date from the 1552-54, this is considered to be one of the earliest examples of a ‘Sacra Conversazione’ painted as a nocturnal scene - a vogue which became popular with other Venetian artists such as Jacopo Bassano, Palma Giovane and Paolo Veronese about a decade later.

Andrea Meldolla, called Schiavone, was born in Zara, Dalmatia, at that time under Venetian jurisdiction; his family came from Meldolla in the Romagna. He was probably living in Venice by the late 1530s, where he died in 1563. He also produced etchings, one of which likewise showed the Christ Child and the infant Baptist, each supported by his kneeling mother.

Places

Subjects

statue (as Subject), sculpture (as Subject), book (as subject), devotional, biblical, Renaissance, baby, man, woman, elderly man, robe, family, son, mother, father, child, halo, New Testament, Jesus, saint, Madonna, column, pillar (architectural feature), alcove/niche

Materials & Techniques

canvas, oil, oil painting

Artist

Andrea Schiavone

Title

Virgin and Child, Infant St. John the Baptist and SS Zachariah, Elizabeth, Joseph, Catherine and a Female Saint

Date

Probably early 1550s

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

height: 122.00 cm, width: 96.50 cm

Acquisition

Presented by Viscountess d'Abernon, November 1953

Provenance

Collection of Viscountess d'Abernon; by whom presented to the Ministry of Works for display in the British Embassy, Rome, in November 1953

GAC number

2282