Italian painter, Luca Signorelli’s nephew and artistic heir, Francesco Signorelli, who was active in his native Cortona and Umbria. He was the pupil of Luca, he collaborated with him, and he executed works in his uncle’s late style in the decades following Luca’s death in 1523.
Francesco Signorelli, the nephew of Luca Signorelli, executed works in his uncle’s late style in the decades following Luca’s death in 1523. The general composition of the present tondo follows that of Luca Signorelli’s Holy Family with Sts John, Elisabeth, and Zacharias in the Berlin Gemäldegalerie, a work which Signorelli painted circa 1509-13.
This painting is one of the three that were commissioned from Luca Signorelli by the Company of Jesus for the three altars of their church in Cortona. These paintings were executed by Signorelli’s workshop. The majority of art critics recognize in the Immaculate Conception the stylistic characteristics of Luca Signorelli’s nephew and artistic heir, Francesco Signorelli, who was active in his native Cortona and Umbria.
