Holy Family with a Female Saint

Unfortunately the surface of this picture has lost most of the original layers of paint. Nevertheless the tight composition of four figures standing closely together is full of energy. Recent X-ray analysis revealed an especially skillful preparatory drawing in silverpoint that can only be attributed to Mantegna. The mood of classical melancholy recalls examples of Roman art in the Gonzaga collections: the Child resembles an infant Dionysus and Saint Joseph a wise from antiquity. An intricate spatial play is created by the arm of the Virgin, which moves across the lower part of the composition to enclose it like a parapet, and the hands and feet of the Child. The psychological and spatial subtleties are comparable to those of similar compositions by Mantegna’s brother-in-law, Giovanni Bellini.