Oil painting on wood. Allegedly by Maerten De Vos

Oil painting on wood. Allegedly by Maerten De Vos (Antwerp 1532- Antwerp 1603). Holy Family. 34x25. In a gilded frame, not coeval 50x40 cm.

"It's a small painting on wood - on which panel there is a fileur that in no way affects the quality of the painting. The bright and warm, uniquely Italian Style work, whose colors are purely Venetian, testifies of the frequentations of the Flemish painter in Italy.Indeed, Maerten De Vos, before returning to Antwerp in 1558, stayed in Rome, Florence and Venice.The painting in exam has been made for a private Venetian client.During this period, he met the "Veronese", "Tiziano" and the "Tintoretto" with whom he collaborates assiduously, mainlny assisting him as a landscape painter, as reported by Carlo Ridolfi (1648).The brilliance and softness and clear tones, as well as the technical drafting of the color that is applied with the brush in a particular horizontal way, make the work ascribe to the period of his Venetian experience. The representation of the Holy Family is centered on the figure of the Madonna, which the face has a composed and serene expression, almost joyful. The ambience and atmosphere that emerge from the overall representation is familiar.St. Joseph is also a participant and shows a pleased interest in adhering to the invitation of The Virgin, who reveals the child, while sleeping, almost smiling. Everything in the painting contributes to creating a calm and composed atmosphere giving the work a serene contemplative quality. Simplicity, which finds its correspondence in popular pictorial sources, is the true regenerating factor that the painter uses and organizes in an exemplary way, escaping a pure mannerism."STUDIO ASOR