The Holy Family in a Landscape

Alessandro Bonvicino, often referred to in contemporary documents by his moniker, 'Moretto', was born to a family of artists in Ardesio. While much of Moretto’s later life is well documented, little is known of his early career and training. Alessandro Ballarin, who was the first to recognize this work as being by Moretto, reconstructed the artist's early oeuvre based upon the organ shutters depicting Saints Faustinus and Jovita which Moretto painted for the old cathedral of Brescia in 1515 (now in the church of Santa Maria in Valvendra in Lovere). Along with Girolamo Romanino, a contemporary painter and collaborator, Moretto was the leading artistic figure in early sixteenth-century Brescia, when the town was under Venetian control. It is very likely that Moretto travelled to Venice as many of his works, including the present example, display the influence of painters working in the wake of Venetian Renaissance painters Giorgione, Titian and Palma Vecchio.