14. Prospero FONTANA (Bologna 1512-1597) Holy family with St. Elizabeth, St. Joseph, St. Catherine, Christ and St. John the Baptist children Oil on canvas. 108 x 93.5 cm overall - 78.5 x 63.5cm (small dents and lifts). Beautiful 18th-century Italian Baroque carved and gilded wood frame. This particular devotional painting should be linked to a series of paintings and drawings on the same subject produced in Bologna in the mid-16th century. In this respect, we know that a number of works were inspired by the models of the Aretinian Giorgio Vasari, whom Prospero Fontana, one of the leading exponents of the "bella maniera" in Emilia, produced following a meeting that probably took place during Vasari's stay in Bologna between 1539 and 1545. These contacts continued in Rimini between 1547-1548 and in Florence from 1554, during Vasari's work at the Palazzo Vecchio. This relationship between the two artists has recently been mentioned by Giovanni Sassu (cf. "Percorsi della Maniera: tra Giorgio Vasari e Prospero Fontanana" Arte a Bologna, 5, 1999, p. 151-165; repeated and clarified in "Riconsiderazioni sull'attività di Prospero Fontana tra il 1539 e il 1545" Prospettiva,1,2000, p.80-97).For our painting, Prospero Fontana drew heavily on the model of Vasari's Holy Family in Bradford (Art Gallery and Museum)1 (fig.1), which features a tight composition where all perspective is banished. The seated Virgin embraces the two children with her arm, while turning her torso and face away from the children towards St. Elizabeth, creating a wide, rhythmic swaying movement punctuated by the presence of St. Joseph in the background. Prospero Fontana repeats this creation to the letter in The Holy Family with St. Francis (Bologna, Rolo Banca 1473) (fig.2)2 and in our painting, where he fleshes out and varies the composition, adding figures, including St. Catherine and a young man, whom he links in a twisting movement, reinforcing their intimacy through the interplay of gestures and glances. Their volumetric importance, suggested by the luminous intensity of the chiaroscuro, is finely described by a vibrant "cangiante" coloring. This refinement is further enhanced by the detail of St. Catherine's aureoles and gold-plated ornamentation. Sassu has published two drawings (figs.3,4) - one in the Louvre (Cabinet des dessins, inv.2207, 224mm x 334mm), the other in Stockholm (inv. NMH 170/1863,158mm x 195mm). These two drawings, which G.Sassu attributes to Prospero Fontana and dates to 1543-15453 , have a similar subject and composition, but incorporate architecture in the background. The Stockholm drawing is a finished creation put to tile and ready to be translated into paint. It probably served in part as a model for our painting, since the architecture here is replaced by a large curtain. This work is therefore a variant of another Fontana painting, unknown today or no longer extant, whose workmanship conforms to the Swedish drawing. While the same graphic strength of the drawing of St. Elizabeth and St. Joseph can be seen here, the faces of St. Catherine and the Virgin Mary are softened and more delicate. 1. Cf. L. Corti, Vasari, Paris 1991, fig. 17; Sassu, op. cit. 1999, fig. 12; 2000, fig. 140 2. Sassu op. cit. 1999, fig. 11; 2000, fig. 139 3. Sassu op. cit. 1999, respectively p.159-160, figs. 13,14, where the author traces the critical fortunes of the two drawings, and op. cit. 2000, p.84-85, figs. 141,142, where he attributes them to Prospero Fontana, suggesting that Vasari and Fontana worked together in the years 1540-1545.