A small, jewel-like devotional painting, this panel, preserved in excellent condition, exemplifies Schedoni's facility for invention on familiar themes, even within his own œuvre. Previously known only from a photograph at the Witt Library, London, it was rediscovered in 2009 and represents a significant addition to Schedoni's autograph works, not least in its relation to the large, celebrated composition of the same subject, datable to about 1610, today in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (fig. 1).¹ From 1607, Schedoni was employed as court painter to Duke Ranuccio I Farnese in Parma, and this cabinet picture was produced at the height of his career.

The Holy Family, in a number of variations with and without other figures, was one of Schedoni's most frequently painted subjects. The freshness and spontaneity represented here – particularly in the naturalistic way in which the Christ Child turns to the viewer – is test.mes nt to Schedoni's originality. The composition relates most closely to the Louvre painting, a work recorded in the Farnese collects ion from 1693, which is three t.mes s larger than this panel, and includes an element of still life in the form of an open prayer book and a trompe l'œil cartellino, which are absent here. Negro and Roio date that painting to around 1610, while Dallasta and Cecchinelli date it to 1610–12.² The present work must have been executed close to this t.mes .

The Virgin clasps her hands protectively around the Child and he gently tugs at the edge of her robe. While their figures are inseparable, in the Louvre painting St Joseph is depicted in profile, as here, but in reverse. Unlike that work, the present painting includes the young St John, holding the reed cross, likewise engaging the audience with his gaze – the motif of a child directly addressing the viewer is one that recurs, though never in slavish imitation, throughout Schedoni's paintings.³ Perhaps even more than in the Louvre canvas, this panel retains the bright, rich colors of ultramarine and golden ocher, contrasted with a deep rose, all of which are heightened by the strong accents of white within the painting. Schedoni skilfully varies these shades to create the deep shadowy folds of the drapery and to emphasize the divine light illuminating the Mother and Child. Within the refinement of this technique can be found the liveliness of Schedoni's method of application – in the way that St John's hair is freely painted over the Virgin's sleeve and robe, for example.

Another version, of inferior quality but which also incorporates the young St John, is in the Pinacoteca, Bologna, considered by Negro and Roio to be at least partly by the studio. In addition, there are at least four other versions, none of which is believed to be fully autograph.⁴

Note on Provenance

The reverse of the panel bears a number of seals, of which two can be partially deciphered. One is a red wax seal that bears in reverse the arms of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.⁵ This suggests the painting may have been in Naples, the city that was to house the Farnese collects ions inherited by Charles III, King of Spain (and from 1734 King of Naples and Sicily) as a consequence of the marriage of his parents Philip V of Spain and Elisabetta Farnese. The Louvre Holy Family was among the works that were transferred from Parma to Naples by the Bourbons when Charles became Duke of Parma and Piacenza and soon after King of the Two Sicilies. It may be that the same fate befell this work. Even if the seal is early nineteenth-century in date, its presence nevertheless suggests a link between Schedoni’s Farnese patrons in Parma and the later history of the Farnese collects ions in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. While the Louvre canvas eventually made its way to France as part of war reparation agreements with the Bourbon king Ferdinand IV of Naples, this painting – along with other works by Schedoni – may have been sent to Palermo to avoid sequestration by the French. The second red wax seal on the reverse is smaller and oval in shape. It bears the arms of the Holy See and was issued by the Customs office of the Papal Treasury.⁶ Further clues, however, are needed to determine the history of the painting’s ownership within the Papal States.

¹ Oil on canvas, 106.5 by 89.2 cm.; inv. no. 661; https://collects ions.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010064396
² F. Dallasta and C. Cecchinelli, Bartolomeo Schedoni, Pittore Emiliano, Modena 1578, Parma 1615, Parma 1999, p. 165.
³ See in particular, The Charity of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, 1611, oil on canvas, 120 by 128 cm.; Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples.
⁴ Oil on canvas (according to Dallasta and Cecchinelli 1999, p. 166; on panel according to Negro and Roio), 56 by 26 cm., Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna, inv. no. 607. Along with the following: a copy on canvas, 108 by 88 cm., Musée Fabre, Montpellier, inv. no. P.1.202; a work published as possibly by Amidano da Riccomini, 94 by 70 cm., Hermitage, St Petersburg, inv. no. 1558; a work of decidedly modest quality on panel, 39.2 by 26 cm., University Art collects ion, Stockholm, inv. no. 222; and a later copy on panel, 27 by 21 cm., Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, inv. no. 577.
⁵ Surrounded by the partially legible words: CONSERVAZ[IONE] D[EI] MONUMENTI [E DELLE] BELLE ARTI. It may be a seal issued by some official body within the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in charge of the region’s artistic patrimony.
⁶ Together with the partially legible words: [DOG]ANA […?] TERRA and the initials RCA, which stand for Reverenda Camera Apostolica.