Italian school; XVI century.

Italian school; XVI century.
"The visitation".
Oil on panel.
It has a frame of the seventeenth century.
Measurements: 13 x 16 cm; 26 x 30 cm (frame).
Devotional image the theme that alludes to the visit that the Virgin, already pregnant of Christ, to her older cousin Elizabeth, pregnant of St. John the Baptist, in the city of Hebron, theme taken from the Gospel of Luke (1: 39-56). It is the moment when her cousin greets the Virgin in a particular way: "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb". The scene follows the text of the Bible in detail: Elizabeth's posture responds to the clear intention of highlighting this greeting, but also to questions of hierarchy and deference to the Mother of Jesus, and was a formula that was adopted and exported, most prominently, the Italian school of the late fifteenth century, although other schools also adopted this posture. The presence of this Zechariah, however, contradicts the texts, but in spite of this his representation was very frequent in this theme since the 6th century.
In this particular case, the finish of the piece indicates that it is probably a sketch for a larger work. In the scene, barely sketched, appear St. Joseph and Zechariah, husband of the Virgin's cousin.