The Holy Family with St. Anne

Previously titled The Holy Family, this pen drawing was formerly attributed to the major early Baroque artist Agostino Carracci. Although it represents Agostino compositionally and something of his pen style, it is a much later drawing by an imitator and admirer. Both Ubaldo Gandolfi (1728-1781) and his younger brother Gaetano were imitators of the Carracci, and were mainly active in the same city, Bologna. A supposed Annibale Carracci drawing in the Victoria & Albert Museum has now been confidently attributed to Gandolfi, and the hatching patterns are similar both in this drawing and Te Papa's.

In the drawing, the Virgin Mary reads from an open, devotional volume to the eager Christ child. To her left is St Anne, holding an oil lamp - she is the patron saint of miners. To the Virgin's right is the gruff-looking Joseph, holding a staff. 

See: Peter Tomory, Old Master Drawings in the National Collection (Wellington, 1983).

Peter Ward-Jackson, ltalian Drawings (London, 1982), vol II. no. 1018.

Dr Mark Stocker  Curator, Historical International Art           February 2017