Caravaggio (1571-1610)
Sacra Famiglia con san Giovannino (The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist)
early 1600s
Oil on canvas, 117.5 x 95.9 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
This is the only private devotional painting of the Madonna and Child known by Caravaggio. It dates from the early 1600s when Caravaggio was increasingly attentive to the work of his great contemporary Annibale Carracci, whose work in Rome follows the classical tradition of Raphael. The clarity of light and form was important to these painters. This canvas was probably sent to France soon after its execution, which may explain why it is not mentioned by any of Caravaggio’s early biographers. (MET)