Holy Family with Infant St. John
| Attributed To | Lavinia Fontana (Italian, 1552–1614) |
|---|---|
| Title | Holy Family with Infant St. John |
| Date | Ca. 1600 |
| Medium | Oil on copper |
| Dimensions | Image: 7 1/8 × 5 3/4 in. (18.1 × 14.6 cm) Framed: 16 × 13 in. (40.6 × 33 cm) |
| Credit Line | Gift of Dr. Jane Fortune, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University |
| Accession Number | 2019.3 |
| This artwork is currently on view. | |
A woman dressed in red and blue stands above a sleeping infant. An infant next to the woman holds a cross and looks at the sleeping infant. A man stands next to the woman.
Lavinia Fontana was renowned for her portraits, and her skill as a portraitist is evident in this composition. The vivid color and the elongation of the Christ Child’s body in this work also reveal the influence of Mannerism. Fontana is considered the first professional female artist in Western Europe. In an unusual arrangement, her husband, the painter Paolo Zappi, managed her career, raised their eleven children, and served as her assistant. He may have painted the draperies in the background of this composition. Also unusual for a female artist of the Renaissance, Fontana painted history and mythological subjects in addition to portraits.
Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.
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"Holy Family with Infant St. John | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=2019.3