(Antwerp 1520–after 1570), attributed to, The Virgin and Child, oil on panel, 71 x 52 cm, framed

The present painting is based on a lost composition by Leonardo da Vinci that has only survived in the form of an adaptation by Giovanni Pedrini, called Giampietrino. The latter work’s background closely resembles that of the present painting. Relying on Giampietrino’s model, Joos van Cleve and his workshop did a large number of variants of the Leonardesque prototype in the 1530s–40s, modifying them, however, in the characteristic manner of Antwerp Mannerism. Because of the cherries the Child holds in his hands as a symbol of Christ’s forthcoming passion, this type of painting was given the name “Madonna with the Cherries”. Different from our picture, almost all of the Madonnas coming from Cleve’s workshop show architectural elements lending the originally plain Lombard composition a northern atmosphere typical of the Late Renaissance in Antwerp. The present painting, on the other hand, is more closely related to the prototype than all the other adaptations produced by the Antwerp-based workshop; this also applies to the rather subdued colours, so that one can assume today that the original work was known to the artist of the present picture. From all of Cleve’s collaborators it is Cleve’s son Cornelis who might most likely have been inspired by the lost prototype: his later works clearly reveal an Italian influence, particularly Andrea del Sarto’s, so that it can be assumed that Cornelis sojourned in Italy for a lengthy period, from where he seems to have returned in 1540, after his father’s death. Since the present picture is painted on oak, it must date from after 1540. That Cornelis van Cleve dealt with Leonardo’s composition handed down by Giampietrino is testified by a panel in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich (inv. no. WAF 489) that closely resembles the present work.