(Sassoferrato 1609–1685 Rome)
Madonna in prayer,
oil on canvas, 49 x 41.7 cm, framed

We are grateful to François Macé de Lépinay for suggesting the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a photograph.

The present painting depicts one of the most celebrated representations of the Virgin by the painter from the Marches, Giovanni Battista Salvi, called Il Sassoferrato, of which replicas and copies are known.

This work relates to the example conserved in the Monastero di Santa Chiara in Sassoferrato, the painter’s town of origin. The known versions of this work differ a little both compositionally and in the details of the Virgin’s representation.

In the present painting the Madonna is shown with her head covered by a blue veil and inclined towards her left shoulder, whilst her hands in the foreground are joined in prayer. Other versions, of similar dimensions, are conserved in the Pinacoteca Civica di Pesaro and in the Galleria Rospigliosi, Rome. In examples, such as the one in the Pinacoteca Comunale di Cesena, the Virgin is shown half-length with her head inclined towards her right shoulder (see: Giovan Battista Salvi “Il Sassoferrato” ed. by F. Macé de Lepinay, Milan 1990). Differing from other well-known representations by the painter in which the Virgin lowers her gaze in humility, or raises it devotedly to the heavens, in the present composition her eyes are turned directly towards the spectator. Her gaze is charged with a sweetness and grace which derives from the classicising examples of the Carracceschi, and the earlier Raffaelleschi, which the painter assimilated in Rome.