Madona e Criança com o Pequeno São João Batista (The Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist) - Bernardino Lanino

Madona e Criança com o Pequeno São João Batista (The Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist) - Bernardino Lanino
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Both the size and subject of the present work suggest that it was intended as a private devotional piece. It displays clear influences of the Leonardo tradition in its soft handling and the characteristically sweet interpretation of the Madonna and Child. Lanino would have been familiar with these stylistic influences through his association with fellow Vercelli artist Gaudenzio Ferrari (d. 1546), who was in turn a pupil of Bernardino Luini (c. 1480-1532). Furthermore in the 1540s and '50s Lanino spent periods of time working on commissions for altarpieces and frescoes in Milan where he would have come into direct contact with Leonardo's works. The present composition was clearly very successful and was much in demand from patrons as Lanino is known to have painted several versions of it, at least one with a landscape background, (see Christie's, London, 11 December 1987, lot 113; and Cambi, Genoa, 23 April 2013, lot 47).