Marco d'Oggiono. A Work From The Early 1500s By A Pupil Of Leonardo, Painted On Poplar Panel.

In this superb painted panel, Marco D'Oggiono (Oggiono 1475–Milan 1524) pays homage to the Master Leonardo by portraying a young Saint John with a vivid and intense expression, as only a true artist can convey. The stylistic similarities with other paintings by D'Oggiono depicting the infant St. John are evident, especially with the 'Madonna and Child' at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, in which the child’s features and expression share the same distinctive characterization. The painting, executed on a poplar panel measuring 62 x 37.5 cm, comes from a Roman family that had long regarded it as a probable work by Leonardo. On the reverse, a very worn label bears a 16th-century inscription that is now damaged and illegible. Two large letters, 'G B', appear to be the initials of the collector who owned it. Also on the reverse are two different stamps from old export records. Undeniably, the colorism and intensity of the scene imbue this painting with a distinctly Leonardesque magic and make its attribution to Leonardo’s disciple, Marco d’Oggiono, entirely plausible.