"sacred Conversation" By Francesco Rizzo Da Santacroce (bergamo, 1485 – Venice, 1545)

"Sacred Conversation"
The Madonna in Prayer with the Child, Flanked by Saints John the Baptist and Catherine of Alexandria
Francesco Rizzo da Santacroce (Bergamo 1485 – Venice, after 1545)
Oil on canvas, 16th century

Canvas: 95 x 73 cm
Frame:  111 x 87 cm
Excellent condition

This elegant 16th-century painting depicts a typical scene known as the “Sacred Conversation” and displays the unmistakable characteristics of Venetian Renaissance painting. The Virgin prays with her hands clasped and her adoring gaze turned downward toward the Child, who lies on a white sheet with his legs crossed and one hand clenched into a fist over his mouth. On either side of the two central figures, Saints John the Baptist and Catherine of Alexandria turn toward them, displaying their respective iconographic attributes: the banner inscribed with “Ecce Agnus Dei” and the cogwheel of martyrdom.
The theme of the Holy Conversation began to spread in Italian painting around the mid-15th century with the two splendid altarpieces by Beato Angelico and Piero della Francesca, painted around 1440 and 1470, respectively, and gradually replaced the sectional layout of medieval triptychs and polyptychs. It represented one of the great innovations of Renaissance sacred art, lending itself to more modern compositional solutions than the Gothic canons. The Virgin and Child is always depicted at the center of an enclosed or open-air space, flanked by a varying number of saints.
Our painting stands out for its remarkable stylistic elegance and the delicacy of the figures’ faces—the women’s are very sweet, while the face of John the Baptist is equally stern. The position of the infant is particularly well-captured; the artist depicts him identically in other works of his. The work is, in fact, one of the most accomplished “Sacred Conversations” created by the Bergamo-born master Francesco Rizzo da Santacroce, who specialized in this type of sacred painting and was active primarily in Venice during the first half of the 16th century. He often kept the two central figures—the Virgin and Child—unchanged while altering the figures on the sides according to the patrons’ requests.

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