Following models of Scipione Pulzone, ca. 1600

Spanish or Italian school, ca. 1600. Following models of SCIPIONE PULZONE, Il Gaetano (Gaeta, 1544 - Rome, 1598).
"Virgin of the milk".
Oil on canvas. Frame of the nineteenth century.
Presents faults.
Measurements: 95 x 76 cm; 123 x 103 x 10 cm.

This work is inscribed in the climate of transition between the last Roman Mannerism and the postulates of clarity, decorum and emotional control promoted by the Catholic Reformation after the Council of Trent. The painting reflects the principles that characterize the school of Scipione Pulzone: a restrained religiosity, of intense idealized beauty, where emotion is expressed through measured gestures, serene faces and a legible composition, intended for devotion and meditation rather than dramatic impact. The neat treatment of the drawing, the elegance of the proportions and the chromatic richness, especially in the contrast between the red of the dress and the greenish blues of the Virgin's mantle, refer to a pictorial language that seeks to reconcile the classicist tradition with the spiritual demands of the new sacred art. In this sense, the work is situated at a key moment in Roman painting, immediately prior to the irruption of Caravaggist naturalism, offering an image of the Virgin marked by grace, introspection and formal nobility.

Scipione Pulzone (Gaeta, 1544 - Rome, 1598), known as Il Gaetano, was one of the central figures of Roman painting in the second half of the 16th century. Trained in the milieu of Jacopino del Conte, Pulzone developed a personal style characterized by refined drawing, enameled chromaticism and meticulous attention to finish, which made him one of the most appreciated portraitists of the Roman aristocracy and curia. In his religious production, he rigorously adopted the Tridentine ideals of decorum, narrative clarity and theological correctness, decisively influencing later generations of painters active in Rome. His work represents one of the last great moments of the classicist ideal prior to the naturalistic turn of the Seicento, and his school prolonged these aesthetic values in a sober, elegant and deeply spiritual devotional language, of which this painting is an eloquent testimony.