The Madonna and Child enthroned, with Saints Joseph and Andrew in a landscape

The present lot is offered with a photocopy of a certificate (without address) by Professor Emmanuele Mattaliano. Mattaliano considered it to date from the early years of the artist's activity, whereas a stylistic date towards 1530 seems more acceptable on the grounds of the similarities between the physiognomy of Saint Joseph in the Courtauld Institute Holy Family with the Infant Saint John and Saint Elizabeth (A.M. Fioravanti Baraldi, Il Garofalo, Rimini, 1993, p. 219, no. 149) and in the Madonna in the Rijksmuseum Adoration of the Magi (op. cit., no. 150).

No example of the Madonna offering her breast to the Infant Jesus is found in Baraldi's book. Boschini in his notes to G. Baruffaldi, Vite de'Pittori e Scultori Ferraresi, I, Ferrara, 1844, p. 366, recorded a Madonna lattante il Bambino in the Royal Gallery at Munich.