Circle of Polidoro de 'Renzi, known as Polidoro da Lanciano, (Lanciano, c. 1515 – Venice, 1565), Rest during the Flight into Egypt with the Young Saint John

Circle of Polidoro de 'Renzi, known as Polidoro da Lanciano (Lanciano, c. 1515 – Venice, 1565) Rest during the Flight into Egypt with the Young Saint John Oil on canvas, 71 x 89 cm With frame, 91x108 cm The canvas in question is closely connected to a composition by Polidoro da Lanciano, now held in the Louvre and for years attributed to Titian. The canvas was very successful and widespread, as evidenced by a version held at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm. Like many of his contemporaries, particularly Titian (1488/90–1576), Bonifacio Veronese (1487–1533), and Paolo Veronese (1528–1588), Polidoro was able to create a religious scene of simple everyday life in which the playful figure of the child squirms in his mother's arms and reaches out to his cousin John, who carries the Lamb, his iconographic attribute. Saint Joseph, depicted as a bearded old man, leans amusedly on his hand, all surrounded by a typically Venetian green landscape. Polidoro created numerous canvases with a similar tone, in which the sacred figures, depicted with incredible humanity, are surrounded by lush and serene nature, such as Rest during the Flight into Egypt at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, the Madonna with Child and Young Saint John at the National Gallery of Art, and the Holy Family and Young Saint John and Saint Catherine at the Fitzwilliam Museum. Polidoro di Renzo was born in Lanciano in 1515. He was the son of an artist: his father, Mastro Renzo, owned a well-known 'pignataio' (i.e. potter) workshop in the old quarter of Lanciano, until he moved to Castelli. There he brought his art and founded a school from which the Pompei emerged, namely Tito, Orazio the Elder and Orazio the Younger, the latter a very valuable artist. Polidoro di Mastro Renzo, known by the pseudonym Polidoro da Lanciano, also emigrated at a very young age, but to the Venice of Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese; there he worked from 1530, making a name for himself among the many artists dedicated to sacred art, until his death in 1565. But the artist from Abruzzo, in addition to being a pupil of Vecellio, was also a companion of Schiavone, Bassano, and Sustris, dedicating himself to the embellishment of the ceilings of the houses of Venetian aristocrats, as evidenced by the two tondi preserved in the Capodimonte museum depicting the "Olympus" and the "Banquet of the Gods". His style manifests clear suggestions of Veronese classicism, from which he draws iconographic modules and a renewed chromatic modernity. The prevalence of color over drawing, of tones over forms, the precious and iridescent colors of the garments, the soft but full-bodied drapery at the same time embody the Venetian culture of the artist.