Antique Painting Virgin Mary With Child Bartolomeo Neroni XVI Century

Oil on panel. The work is accompanied by an expert report by Professor Mauro Minardi, who attributes the painting to the work of Bartolomeo Neroni, known as Riccio, an artist active in Siena in the 16th century, through a documented comparison of the pictorial elements of this work with others by the same artist. The painting features a subject that was widely used in the Sienese artistic scene of the 16th century: a Madonna and Child with Saints. In this tondo, Mary is depicted half-length, holding the Baby Jesus, who stands before her on a support surface: the hands of mother and child are intertwined in a gesture of tenderness. To their sides, in the background, are two figures of saints, among those most venerated in Siena: on the right, Saint Catherine, recognizable by her black monastic habit with a white veil and wimple, and holding the traditional lily, a symbol of purity; On the left is a lesser-known saint, Saint Ansanus, a young knight who lived in Siena in the 3rd century, then a Roman colony, where he preached Christianity and was martyred. The young saint is depicted holding a flagpole in one hand and a spherical object in the other, which, according to his iconography, should represent a heart. The work therefore falls within the devotional painting style that was widespread in the 16th century, to which Riccio and his studio devoted considerable effort, given the large number of similar examples that have survived and are attributed to him, thanks in part to fortunate documentation for some of them. The painting's images are inscribed in a gilded frame embossed in the same panel. The back of the panel is reinforced with parquetry. There are some paint losses.
ARARPI0292265