After Antonio Allegri, Madonna della Cesta, 1500s, Oil on Canvas

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Description

A perfect period copy of "Madonna of the Basket" by Antonio Allegri, known as Correggio (Correggio, Reggio Emilia, August 1489 … Read more A perfect period copy of "Madonna of the Basket" by Antonio Allegri, known as Correggio (Correggio, Reggio Emilia, August 1489 – Correggio, Reggio Emilia, March 5, 1534). Oil on canvas depicting Correggio’s "Madonna of the Basket"
(the original dates from 1525).
With frame: 57 x 43 cm - Canvas dimensions: 38 x 29 cm - Depth 5 cm.
It has been re-stretched and restored; examined under a Wood’s lamp, it shows very few restorations. Dimensions without frame: 38 x 30 cm. The original painting is housed at the National Gallery in London. This small painting, intended for private devotion, had the honor of being mentioned in Giorgio Vasari’s Lives in decidedly enthusiastic terms: “wonderfully beautiful, by the hand of Correggio, in which Our Lady puts a shirt on the infant Christ.” Its earliest provenance is precisely that mentioned by Vasari, who records it in the first half of the 16th century in Parma with the famous Cavalier Baiardo, a patron of Parmigianino and a distinguished collector of the time. It was likely thanks to this laudatory mention that the work caught the eye of Bishop Federico Borromeo, who commissioned a copy for his Milanese collection, entrusting the task to his illuminator Gerolamo Marchesini. Furthermore, for similar reasons, Diana Scultori produced an engraved copy of it in Rome in 1577, which must have helped spread its fame. Also from the Roman context comes the testimony of Federico Barocci, who was quick to embrace the narrative suggestions offered in works such as the Madonna Albani. And it could not have been otherwise, since the artist from Urbino was seeking a language less intellectual and artificial than that spoken by his Mannerist contemporaries—a language capable of clothing sacred history in a garment of fresh and persuasive naturalism. These aspirations led him on more than one occasion to reflect on the models offered by Correggio’s religious art. The focal point of the painting is the tender bond between the Virgin and the Child, as she gently tries to dress him in the little blue shirt she has just finished sewing. The sewing basket, with the scissors clearly visible, opens the painting on the left, and while one might read symbolic allusions into it, its role is primarily to give the image a convincing “sense of reality.” By depicting the Virgin as very young, almost adolescent, having just set aside her sewing tools, Correggio succeeds in placing the sacred story within a setting of simple and captivating everyday life. Jesus is a true man, as evidenced by his masculine body, yet his mother has prepared a double garment for him as a sign of the two natures—human and divine—that he bears within himself. The truth of his destiny is expressed by his outstretched arms on the cross, while his small right hand blesses with the sign of the Trinity. Particularly in the background, where St. Joseph can be glimpsed, it is possible to trace references to Northern models, notably an engraving by Dürer that Correggio may have been familiar with, The Holy Family in Egypt.

This piece is attributed to the mentioned designer/maker. It has no attribution mark and no
official proof of authenticity,
however it is well documented in design history. I take full responsibility for any authenticity



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