Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth and the young Saint John

The painting, in a frame with gilded scrolls of the late seventeenth century, arrived at the Civic Art Gallery with other works from the collection of the Vicenza noblewoman Paolina Porto Godi. After having been examined at length by scholars and critics, who expressed the most varied opinions as to its author, the painting was attributed to the painter Prospero Fontana from Bologna, who is believed to have made it in the period 1539-1540.

It is an almost workaday domestic image of the Holy Family, portrayed here in the presence of Saint Elizabeth and the young Saint John. The Child is merrily kicking his legs, held in the tender embrace of his Mother who looks lovingly down on him, while behind them an elderly Saint Joseph observes the first movements of his Son in satisfaction. The wrinkled face of Saint Elizabeth, shown here as an old midwife, is softened by the tender smile on her lips as she leans on the edge of the cradle, looking towards the Child. Only Saint John, with his hands joined, kneels in sign of adoration, aware of the identity and destiny of the Newborn.

It is “an image of serenity, with the added charm of the spring-like, joyful brightness of the contrasting colours, changing at times, certainly inspired by Vasari, but without forgetting, in the careful blending of light areas on darker ones, what had been and still was one of the secrets of Venetian painting” (Lucco).