(Venice active 1543 – died 1565)
The Holy Family with Saint Mary Magdalen,
oil on canvas, 136 x 179 cm, unframed

Provenance:
sale, Sedelmeyer, Vienna, 20–21 December 1872, lot 86 (as Bonifazio Veronese, for 1610 florins);
purchased at the above sale by Heinrich von Ferstel (1828–1883), Vienna;
and thence by descent

Literature:
T. v. Frimmel, Lexikon der Wiener Gemäldesammlungen, Munich 1913, vol. I, p. 351 (as Bonifazio)

Giovanni Galizzi came from a family of painters in Santa Croce near Bergamo. There are two known signed and dated works by him. The first is a triptych dated 1543 from the church of Breno, of which the central panel is now in the Agliardi Collection in Bergamo, while the side wings are conserved in the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo. The second work, dated 1547, is Saint Mark Enthroned and Flanked by Saints Jacob and Patrick, today preserved in the Museo Parrocchiale Santa Maria Assunta in Vertova. Although both works derive from churches in the vicinity of Bergamo, inscriptions document their execution in Venice.

Galizzi received his early training in the workshop of Francesco Rizzo di Bernardo da Santa Croce, while his stylistic development also suggests a later connection to Polidoro da Lanciano. One can only make assumptions as to the relationship between Giovanni Galizzi and Jacopo Tintoretto. Giovanni had probably known Jacopo from a young age, because both Tintoretto and Giovanni’s master, Francesco Rizzo, lived in the district of San Cassiano at the time. In the early 1550s, Giovanni collaborated with Marten De Vos, who is reported to have worked in Tintoretto’s studio. It can therefore be assumed that Giovanni did not simply emulate Tintoretto, who had meanwhile come to dominate Venetian painting, but that he actually worked in the latter’s workshop. Nevertheless, it seems that he was sufficiently independent to accept commissions of his own and adhere to his personal, unmistakable style. In his last will, dated 15 May 1565, he described himself as ‘Zuane depentor et habitante in Venetia nel confin di San Lio’, which suggests that he had worked continuously in Venice for a period of at least twenty-two years (see R. Echols, Giovanni Galizzi and the Problem of the Young Tintoretto, in: Artibus et Historiae, vol. 16, no. 31, 1995, p. 80).

The manner with which the Madonna’s garment is modelled and her posture in the present composition can specifically be compared to the Madonna in Galizzi’s Adoration of the Magi of private collection, dated towards the end of the 1540s (see R. Echols, Ibid., 1995, p. 92, fig. 21). However, the overall composition is reminiscent of Giovanni Bellini and of Galizzi’s own works from the early 1540s, when he was preoccupied with the pictorial genre of the Sacra Conversazione. His paintings betray a preference for clear, bright colours and decorative patterns, as can also be observed in the present painting.

Heinrich von Ferstel, who once owned the present work, was an Austrian architect. In 1855, he won the architectural competition for the Votivkirche in Vienna, the first building planned for the Vienna Ringstraße. Through this significant example of Gothic Revival architecture, Ferstel became one of the most celebrated Ringstraße architects. Subsequently, he designed numerous further monumental buildings, villas, and residential buildings in Vienna and throughout the Monarchy. Ferstel became the curator of the Museum of Art and Industry and professor at the Polytechnic Institute. In 1879, he was appointed honorary citizen of Vienna by Emperor Francis Joseph I.