The Madonna and Child

Sassoferrato’s celebrated copies after Raphael are the clearest mark of his great interest in the Renaissance. In the pursuit of other models to follow, his horizons also stretched beyond Italy. He is known to have painted at least one Madonna after a picture by Joos van Cleve, while a version of his renowned Virgin in Prayer depends on the Madonna and Child by Dürer in the Albertina, Vienna (see F. Russell, ‘Sassoferrato and his Sources. A Study of Seicento Allegiance’, The Burlington Magazine, CXIX, October 1977, p. 696). It is quite possible that this unpublished picture - which appears to be a unique composition in the artist’s oeuvre - also took its inspiration from an invention by Dürer, his engraving of 1520 showing the Madonna with a swaddled infant in similar manner (fig. 1).

We are grateful to Professor François Macé de Lépinay for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs.