Italian School, 17th Century, Madonna With Child And San Giovannino

Italian school, 17th century

Madonna with Child and San Giovannino

Oil on canvas, cm 86 x 99

With frame, cm 113 x 93

The seventeenth-century painting shows the Virgin trying to present the Divine Son to the little saint Giovannino, presented with his pivotal attributes, the cane with cruciform culmination and the hat skin resting on the shoulders, examples of his future hermitage in the desert. The close relationship between mother and child, who look at each other with loving eyes, is of particular emotional intensity in the Baroque painting. The Madonna gently holds his hand, in a gesture that gives the composition a deep humanity and a sense of realism and truth that denotes the entire line of development of Italian painting of the seventeenth century. San Giovannino hands a tray with pears to Gesù Bambino and Cristo is about to grab one for the petiole. In the context of Christianity, although the pear is not one of the most common symbols or explicitly mentioned in the Scriptures as, for example, the grape or the apple, has taken on several positive values in art and sacred iconography, especially from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Usually this symbolizes the Divine Goodness and the deep Love of God for his faithful: The intrinsic sweetness of the fruit of the pear has made it a symbol of the goodness of the Creator and the love of the Lord for humanity. The symbolism of the pear is often used in representations of the Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus. In this context, symbolizes the love and deep affection between Mother and Son, and more generally the love of God for humanity through the figure of Christ. Linked to the concept of divine love, the pear can also represent the Redemption, the salvation offered by Christ to humanity.