Madonna and Child with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist

Mary holds the infant Jesus on her lap as she turns to her cousin Elizabeth, whose son, John the Baptist, kneels at her feet. John’s unlikely birth to the elderly Elizabeth prefigured the miraculous birth of Jesus, and John later preached to his divine cousin’s followers and baptized them into the faith. Here, the artist placed the Christian biblical figures in a contemporary setting with recognizable elements of a sixteenth-century Florentine interior, including the portable terracotta vessel holding heated coals, called a brazier, and a fireplace made of gray sandstone (pietra serena).

One of the most successful artists working in the Mannerist style, Jacopino del Conte had a long career in Florence and Rome that bridged the early and late sixteenth century, carrying forward the vibrant palette, monumental fi gures, and energetic compositions of his stylistic origins in the Florentine circle of Andrea del Sarto, Jacopo Pontormo, and Agnolo Bronzino. In addition to his depictions of the Madonna and Child made for private devotion, his work after relocating to Rome in the early 1530s also included a number of important public commissions, most prominently fresco decorations in the oratory of San Giovanni Decollato and the church of San Luigi dei Francesi.