Depiction:

Seated in the foreground, the Virgin holds the Infant Christ on her lap; young Saint John looks on from the right. Joseph stands behind, leaning with crossed hands against a block of stone or wood. The elongated figures and faces, as well as the vacant, dark eyes of the Christ Child, are characteristic of works from the second half of the sixteenth century. Mannerism, as this affected style is called, aimed at discord instead of harmony and strain instead of repose.

Attribution:

The painting was probably produced in the northern Italian region of Emilia, possibly at Ferrara. Although the pink and white skin tones and the elongated figures with tapered fingers resemble those in works by the most famous master of this region, Francesco Mazzuoli, called Il Parmigianino (1503-1540), closer comparisons are found in paintings by two Ferrarese masters Giuseppe Mazzuoli, called Bastarolo (1536?-1589), and Ippolito Scarsella, called Scarsellino (1551-1620). The hardness of the drawing of the Virgin´s head and the stylized and edgy drawing of the body of the Christ Child makes it impossible to ascribe the work to Parmigianino. Though there is a certain affinity with works by the master, the more typical features ascribed to Parmigianino, such as the delicacy of profiles, the sinuosity of figures, and the winding construction of the composition are not present.

The painting can be included among mannerist works created in the area around Parma and Ferrara in the second half of the 16th century. In particular, a comparison with works by the above mentioned Ferrarese masters Bastarolo and Scarsellino, both from Ferrara, and relatively "parmigianinesque" in style, confirm the attribution of this work to this cultural area. In particular, the figure of St. Joseph leaning with crossed hands against a stone and the landscape in the background, resemble several works both in style and composition: the Holy Family in the Galleria Borghese, in Rome (Scarsellino), the collection of the Cassa di Risparmio of Bologna, the collection of the Marquess of Exeter residing in the Accademia Carrara, in Bergamo, and especially the Nicholson Collection in London (Scarselliono). The closest comparison is definitely the Holy Family of the Nicholson collection, where we find the same elongated bodies, the same pink and white of the skin, and a similar stiffness of the figures that is slightly less evident in Boston CollegeÕs Holy Family with St. John.

Provenance:

Records in the Boston College files date back to the 1950s, but this painting may have been in the UniversityÕs possession several years before that time.

Originally hung in the Conference Room of Bapst Library at Boston College.

Comments:

Mr. Venturi (undated comment): " Parmigianino, one of his compositions."

The back of the painting bears the following inscription: "Gustano Mazzuola, vita Parmigianino."

Bibliography/Literature:

From Borso to Cesare d´Este. The School of Ferrara 1450-1628, exhibition catalog, Matthiesen Fine Art Ltd, London, 1984.

Paintings from Emilia 1500-1700, exhibition catalog, Matthiesen Fine Arts, Ltd., London, 1987.

Frabetti, G., Manieristi a Ferrara, Milano, 1972.

Scarsellino and Bastarolo, La pittura in Italia. Il Cinquecento, Milano, 1987, II, pp. 639.

*Novelli, M., Lo Scarsellino, Milan, 1964.