Lot Essay
The main figures derive from Raphael's Madonna del Paesaggio. The present picture was probabaly executed circa 1615-6 as suggested by Aidan Weston Lewis in the exhibition catalogue Raphael, The Pursuit of Perfection, (op. cit). Raphael was then in the Aldobrandini Palace, Rome, whose major-domo and librarian was Agucchi, a friend of Annibale Carracci, Lanfranco's master. Another version by Lanfranco was sold at Christie's, London, Dec. 8, 1995, lot 99, (28,000=$42,840) where the Saint Joseph is closer to the preparatory drawing in the Uffizi, as pointed out by Weston Lewis. A variant was etched by Stafanoni, (ibid., no. 44) the prototype of which was credited to Guido Reni.