Piero di Cosimo - Madonna and Child and St John the Baptist - Walters 37425

In the 1500s, a more casual grouping of Mary and the Christ Child and his cousin John the Baptist was a popular variant on the traditional depiction of the Madonna and Child, emphasizing the hamnity of Christ.
The artist of this painting is either Giacomo Francia (1486-1557) or his brother, Giulio Francia (1487-1540). They were sons of the more well-known Francesco Raibolini, called Francia (1450-1517). The composition is based on that of a famous tondo (round painting) attributed to Piero di Cosimo (1462-1521), a famous Florentine painter, and now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Strasbourg. In the prototype, the central group is seen in reverse. Also, the composition and setting are more elaborately conceived; the landscape is different and the Madonna looks away. Sts. Jerome and Bernard, who appear in the distant background of Cosimo's tondo, are absent from the Walters painting.

For more information on the present painting, see Federico Zeri's 1976 catalogue no. 133, pp. 200-201.