Holy Conversation - Francesco Rizzo Da Santacroce (bergamo 1485 – Venice 1547)

"Holy Conversation"
Madonna praying over the Child between Saints John the Baptist and Catherine of Alexandria
Francesco Rizzo da Santacroce (Bergamo 1485 – Venice, after 1545)
Oil on canvas
16th century

Canvas cm. 95 x 73
Cadre  cm. 111 x 87
Excellent condition

This elegant 16th century canvas depicts a typical scene called "Holy Conversation" and presents the unmistakable characteristics of Venetian Renaissance painting. The Virgin prays with her hands clasped and her adoring gaze turned downwards towards the Child, lying on a white sheet with his legs crossed and a fist closed over his mouth. On the sides of the two protagonists, Saints John the Baptist and Catherine of Alexandria turn towards them showing their respective iconographic attributes; the banner with the inscription "Ecce Agnus Dei" and the cogwheel of martyrdom.
The theme of the Sacred Conversation began to spread in Italian painting towards the middle of the 15th century with the two splendid altarpieces by Beato Angelico and Piero della Francesca, executed respectively in 1440 and around 1470, and gradually replaced the sectional layout of the triptych and polyptych of medieval origin. It represented one of the great innovations of Renaissance sacred art, lending itself to more modern scenographic solutions compared to Gothic canons. The Virgin and Child is always depicted in the center of an enclosed or open space, between a variable number of Saints depicted at her sides.
Our canvas stands out for its notable stylistic elegance and the finesse of the faces of the characters, the female ones are very sweet and the Baptist's face is equally severe. The position of the child is particularly successful, and the Author presents it identically in other compositions. The work is in fact one of the most successful Sacred Conversations by Francesco Rizzo da Santacroce, specialized in this type of sacred paintings. He often keeps the two central figures of the Virgin and Child unchanged and changes the lateral figures according to the requests of the clients.