While perhaps best known for his hugely important Lives of the Artists, which documents the life and work of Italian artists of the Renaissance, Giorgio Vasari was also a major painter in 16th-century Florence. Beyond this, he was among the most influential figures in cultural politics at the Medici court. His exuberant Mannerist style was embraced by Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, who bestowed upon the artist commissions for altarpieces in the major churches of Florence and for paintings and frescoes to fill the walls and ceilings of the Palazzo Vecchio. 

In addition to these grand projects, Vasari painted portraits, allegories, and religious works for private patrons. These are some of his most prized paintings, as the intimate scale and polished execution made them ideal for domestic environments. Our Holy Family is a particularly precious example. It is an intimate depiction of the Virgin and child with Saint Joseph, depicted in an overtly human manner. The Christ child, standing on one foot, reaches towards his mother and gently caresses her chin. She is untying his swaddling clothes, allowing him to take his first steps. Joseph, his head resting on his hand, quietly observes from behind. The background is composed of a lush wall of leaves—a motif derived from Parmigianino—which places the tender scene in a familiar earthly setting.

Exhibited in a spectacular Florentine frame, the painting is well known to scholars on the artist. All agree on Vasari’s authorship with a date in the mid-1540s. It has been suggested that the painting may be associated with a Holy Family recorded in Vasari’s Ricordanze as painted in 1547 for Ottaviano de’ Medici. Our painting is compositionally and stylistically related to Vasari’s Holy Family with Saint Francis of 1541, which was commissioned by Francesco Leoni and is now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

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