Florentine school; last third of the XVI century.

Florentine school; last third of the sixteenth century.
"Madonna and Child with St. John.
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It has French frame of the nineteenth century.
Measurements: 101.5 x 79 cm; 132 x 112 cm (frame).
Stylistically this work shows fully in the artistic climate of the late Tuscan mannerism, characterized by a synthesis between the heritage of the High Renaissance and a more refined, intellectual and devotional sensibility. The composition presents the Virgin enthroned in a natural setting, accompanied by the Infant Jesus and St. John the Baptist, in a scene of serene intimacy.
The painting reveals a clear debt to Florentine models derived from Raphael and Andrea del Sarto, reinterpreted through Mannerist language. The figures are organized in a pyramidal composition, stable and harmonious, which reinforces the centrality of the Virgin as the spiritual axis of the scene. The drawing, a fundamental element in the Florentine tradition, is precise and elegant, especially visible in the definition of the faces and in the soft anatomical modeling of the children. The chromatic range, rich but restrained, combines warm tones in the flesh tones with deep blues and dark greens in the drapery, creating a delicate balance between color and form.
The quality of the work can be appreciated in the subtlety of the chiaroscuro, which envelops the figures in a soft and enveloping light, as well as in the delicacy of the gestures and gazes, charged with a restrained lyricism. The Virgin is represented with an ideal of serene and spiritualized beauty, absorbed in the reading of a book, symbol of divine wisdom and her role as Sedes Sapientiae. This gesture introduces a contemplative dimension that reinforces the meditative character of the scene.
The iconography of St. John the Baptist as a child, recognizable by his childlike appearance and physical proximity to Christ, alludes to his role as a precursor. His presence symbolically anticipates the future sacrifice, reinforcing the theological sense of the whole. The interaction between the two children, treated with naturalism and tenderness, underlines the humanity of Christ, one of the central themes of 16th century religious painting. The figure of St. Anne, placed in the background, also introduces a genealogical and doctrinal reading, frequent in the Marian iconography of Florentine tradition.
The stylistic features of the work, the contained idealism, the formal elegance, the taste for balanced compositions and the spiritualization of the figures, allow us to relate it to a painter trained in the Florentine academic environment, possibly active in a workshop linked to the great masters of the late Cinquecento. The painting thus responds to a production intended for private devotion, where iconographic clarity and formal beauty are placed at the service of religious contemplation.