Francesco Trevisani

(Capodistria, 1656 - Roma, 1746)

This refined version of the Madonna Sewing, on copper, is confidently attributed to Francesco Trevisani by Laura Muti and may be dated to the very early years of the eighteenth century, during the period of the patronage of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, whose coat of arms appears on the flower vase in the foreground. The work belongs to one of the artist’s most successful devotional inventions, known in several versions, including the example preserved in the Gallerie degli Uffizi. The composition fully reveals Trevisani’s mature language, poised between Marattesque classicism and a sensibility anticipating the Rococo, with figures of elegant softness, luminous draperies, and a domestic lyricism of intense narrative grace.

Particularly noteworthy are the quality of the painterly execution, the delicate landscape glimpse to the right in which Saint Joseph appears, and the precious still-life passage with the transparency of the glass and the flowers rendered with refined sensitivity to light and colour.