The Holy Family

Alessandro Badiale (1626–71) was an Italian painter and engraver of the Baroque period, active in Bologna. He was a pupil of the Bolognese painter Flaminio Torre (1620-61), who himself had studied with Guido Reni and Simone Cantarini. Among Badiale's etchings are a Virgin seated with the Infant Jesus, between St Philip Neri and St Anthony of Padua, a Deposition and this Holy Family after Torre. This etching charmingly hints at Jesus's vulnerability; he looks towards Joseph, while the Virgin Mary engages the viewer. She has just been breastfeeding Jesus. The palm trees under which the Holy Family rest indicate that it depicts a rest on the flight to Egypt, although it does not include the characteristic baggage.

In the margin below the imrpession are the arms of Giovanni Francesco Isolani, a senator of Bologna, to whom the work is dedicated. The etching is surprisingly poorly documented, possibly because of the relative lack of interest in third-generation Bolognese artists. There are no copies of it in the British Museum or the Metropolian Museum.

See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_Badiale

William Young Otley, Notices of engravers. and their works (London, 1831)

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art        June 2017