The Holy Family with Angels and a Putto,
oil on canvas, 128 x 153.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Aristocratic collection, since at least circa 1800

The present painting represents the Madonna seated with the Christ Child on her lap and Saint Joseph on the right, with angels and a cherub offering them flowers.

This painting has been traditionally attributed to Andrea Vaccaro (Naples 1604–1670) and the composition displays a strong link with the delicate chiaroscuro of Vaccaro’s works. Vaccaro was strongly influenced by Battistello Caracciolo and Ribera, as well as by the work of Guido Reni and Massimo Stanzione and his painterly style is characterised by the fusion of these elements, showing an attention to a regularity of form, which verges on Classicism. It is possible to compare the figural group of the Madonna and Child in the present painting to the same group Vaccaro painted in the Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine, in the Church of Santa Maria della Sanità, Naples (see R. Lattuada, I percorsi di Andrea Vaccaro [1604-1670], in: Nicola Vaccaro [1640–1709]. Un artista a Napoli tra Barocco e Arcadia, ed. by M. Izzo, Todi 2009, p. 76, fig. 62) and also with the Virgin of the Rosary conserved in the Palazzo Ameduri, Gioiosa Jonica (see op. cit. Lattuada, 2009, p. 101, fig 104).The twisted cherub on the lower left reminds one of the torsion of the body, in the opposite direction, of the Child in the Adoration of the Golden Calf, in the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples (inv. no. Q 1742).

Recently, an alternative attribution to Giovanni Ricca (active in Naples until 1656) has been suggested for the present painting. The suggested attribution is based on stylistic similarities with works by Ricca such as the Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria (Naples, Private Collection), the Saint Apollonia and Saint Agatha (Trapani, Museo Pepoli) and the Adoration of the Sheperds, signed (Potenza, Church of Santa Maria del Sepolcro) (see G. Porzio, La scuola di Ribera: Giovanni Dò, Bartolomeo Passante, Enrico Fiammingo, Naples 2014, pp. 191, 196-97, figs. 155, 165-66, 167).