Madonna and Child with Saints
by VINI, Sebastiano, Tempera on wood, 205 x 154 cm
Sebastiano Vini settled in Pistoia and was active there. He was influenced by the Florentine masters of the High Renaissance - Andrea del Sarto and Fra Bartolomeo - and Mannerism - Pontormo, Bronzino and Vasari. The present work, depicting the Madonna with the Child, the Young John the Baptist and Sts Elisabeth, Jerome and Augustine, shows these effects.
The painting is a characteristic work painted in the Mannerist style. The unusual colours and forms, the figures’ unnatural, twisted poses and the arbitrary spatial arrangement are typical. St Elizabeth places her arm lightly on the shoulder of the Virgin, the gesture is echoed in the embrace of their children. The figures enclosed in the large pink cloud seem as if they appeared to St Jerome, in his vision, and to St Augustine, in his thoughts.
The painter of the work can be identified on the basis of the monogram BV (Bastiano Vini or Veronese) at the bottom.