Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist

Created in Florence, this painting depicts the Virgin Mary, the child Jesus and Saint John in an informal, intimate setting. The attributes lying on the ground, the cross and cup, point to the future role of the Baptist. The artistic ambitions of the Italian Renaissance can be recognized in the figures, which blend harmonically into the idyllic landscape. Here the painter is drawing on the pictorial invention of Raphael. The thick and soft application of paint, however, testifies to his close collaboration with Andrea del Sarto, to whom the painting was originally attributed. GG 208