Artworks

In this wonderfully preserved little copper panel, the Virgin and Saint Joseph are shown resting on a stone ledge under the shade of trees within a dazzling blue hilly landscape. The Virgin is depicted with an extensive head covering extending to her neck and wears a heavily draped azure cloak. The Young Christ is shown with a light halo around His head, as to highlight His holiness. Laying in His Mother’s arms, He is depicted with a firm naked body, spreading His hands and tenderly stroking His Mother’s cheek. Portrayed as an elder Man with a grey beard, Saint Joseph is reading a book. On the left side, an angel with long wings leads the family’s donkey to a stream while two angels picking fruit above. The scene is a direct reference to the legend handed down from the apocryphal gospels: the Holy Family, escaping from Herod’s massacre in Bethlehem, were nourished by angels who collected dates from the tops of palm trees.
In 2000, Daniele Benati attributed the present work to Giovanni Battista Bolognini. Recognised as Guido Reni’s most talented student , Bolognini created engravings of Reni’s masterpieces, worked on the production of – rather severe – altarpieces, until finally concentrating on easel paintings for which he proved to be particularly skilful. Indebted to his Master at the beginning of his career, Bolognini then moved from Reni’s classical purism to more vivid and vigorous volumes, his later works displaying a strong baroque tendency.
The present composition maintains Bolognini great influence by Francesco Albani’s detailing and lyric sweetness. Comparisons can be made with Albani’s composition of the same subject created in 1640 and now in Brocklesby Park, in the Collection of the Count of Yarborough. The setting, with the blue hilly landscape in the background, the depiction of the palm trees, the face of the Virgin and the rendering of the angels can all be linked with the present picture. The paintings also display some similarities with another Rest on the Flight into Egypt (ca. 1660) by Albani that was previously in the Spencer Collection in Althorp; the bearded face of Saint Joseph and the soft face of the Virgin both resemble the present picture. More importantly, the delicate features of the Virgin in the Holy Family with Angels (1630) in the Galleria dell’Accademia Nazionale di San Luca are almost identical to this little copper.
Furthermore, Bolognini’s portrayal of the Holy Family, presents the influence of Simone Cantarini’s noble classicism. The ample drapes of the garments, with their subtle shading and vivid tones and the expressive yet soft and delicate features of the figures all are reminiscent of Cantarini’s work. Amongst others, this work can be linked with Cantarini’s Holy Family with the Young Saint John (1630 – 1648) in the Galleria Borghese in Rome in which the Virgin is carrying a similar headpiece and the young Christ has a lookalike small face with rounded cheeks.
All in all, Bolognini manages to create a harmonious ensemble, developing an artistic personality very much his own. The wonderful conservation status of this painting allows us to place it in the later phase of the painter’s career, most probably at the same time he created the Trial of Saint Paul for the chorus of the Chiesa di San Paolo in Bologna.