Rizzo Da Santacroce, Altarpiece Depicting The Madonna And Child With Saint John The Baptist

Francesco Di Bernardo De’ Vecchi, known as Rizzo Da Santacroce, workshop of

MMadonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist

Oil on panel, cm, 39.5 x 34

This Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist is a work intended for the private devotional market, created by the workshop of Francesco di Bernardo de’ Vecchi, known as Rizzo da Santacroce, and dating to around the mid-16th century. The composition unfolds against a landscape background featuring dark trees and a sky streaked with light clouds, in front of which three figures are arranged: the Virgin, dressed in a green cloak and orange drapery, holds the Child wrapped in white swaddling clothes with both arms, while on the right stands the infant Saint John, recognizable by the processional cross he holds and the wreath of leaves adorning his curly hair.

Francesco di Bernardo de' Vecchi, known as Rizzo da Santacroce, was originally from Santa Croce, a small hilltop village located across from San Pellegrino Terme, on the other side of the Brembo River. This village was home to several families—the Galizzi (also known as Rizzo or De Vecchi), the Oprandis, the Graziolis, and the Michelis—who, during the sixteenth century, migrated to larger centers such as Bergamo and Venice, gradually depopulating the village and taking their artisanal and pictorial traditions with them. No fewer than a dozen painters hailing from Santa Croce were active from the late 15th century through the first quarter of the 17th century, organized into two distinct families and two workshops, both operating in Venice. The workshop of interest here is the one founded by Francesco di Simone, who died in 1508; his legacy passed to Francesco Rizzo di Bernardo, documented from 1504 to 1545, assisted by his brother Vincenzo. He was succeeded by his probable cousin Giovanni De Vecchi or Galizzi, who was present in Venice until 1565. The first certain records of Francesco Rizzo date back to 1505, when he appears as a witness in a document, a sign that he must have already been over eighteen years of age. In 1518, he delivered a triptych to the church of Santa Maria a Serina, and his last documented mention dates to 1545, after which he is believed to have died.

Rizzo da Santacroce’s workshop distinguished itself through the production of devotional images intended for a bourgeois and religious clientele, replicating a fixed repertoire of iconographic models with variations in detail. This working method, typical of Venetian workshops of the sixteenth century, allowed them to respond efficiently to market demand while maintaining recognizable quality standards. Close parallels with the panel under consideration can be found in the works preserved at the Pinacoteca of the Giovanni Bellini Civic Museum in Sarnico. In particular, the Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist housed there shows clear similarities in compositional choices. An even more precise comparison is with the Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist from the same gallery: the figure of Saint John the Baptist, with the cross, wavy hair, and a wreath of foliage, finds an almost mirror-like correspondence with the one in the painting under examination, confirming that both works draw on the same cartoons or workshop models, adapted with minimal variations to meet the needs of the devotional patron.