The Holy Family with St. John the Baptist, St. Elisabeth and Two Angels from the collections of the Liechtenstein family and its origin. Römische Historische Mitteilungen|Römische Historische Mitteilungen 65|

Résumé 0

The Holy Family with St. John the Baptist, St. Elisabeth and Two Angels painting from Château Lednice was an integral part of the art collections of the Princely House of Liechtenstein from 1680 (after it had been purchased by Karl Eusebius of Liechten-stein) until the end of World War Two. Throughout the 17th and 18th century it was considered to be Raphael’s monochromatic sketch to The Holy Family of Francis I, but this painting was already located in France at that time. From the early 1800s, the painting received less and less attention as it was attributed to Raphael’s pupil Polidoro da Caravaggio, and this trend also continued later when scholars classified it as another example of numerous Baroque paintings which copied the famous original. It was not until 2010 that an attempt to rehabilitate the painting from Châ-teau Lednice was made by the restoration specialist Pavel Klimeš, who came to the conclusion that it is merely a sketch – a preparatory grisaille by Raphael. That is also why, Klimeš argued, a delicate and obviously cheaper canvas had been chosen, and the painting had been made with an emphasis on the composition, drawing and modelling. Klimeš’s conclusion is acceptable, but only for the function of this work of art; the proposed attribution is not supported by evidence. However, it turns out that the painting was made in Raphael’s studio along with the original and it may have been finished at the same time, i.e. already in 1518. In this paper, the authors attribute the painting to Tommaso Vincidor, Raphael’s pupil from Bologna, who came to Brussels after his master’s death to supervise the preparation and real-ization of the tapestries for the Vatican Palace. He probably took the record of The Holy Family of Francis I with him to Flanders as a studio material ‘to be used later’, and not only did he use it himself, which is obvious from his design of the tapestry Meeting of the Two Holy Families, but he also helped a number of Flemish artists become familiar with the famous painting of Raphael from the royal art collections and learn about the latest style trends coming from Rome.