While nothing is known about the earlier history of this painting, official export stamps on the back of the canvas suggest that it may have spent some time in a branch office on the Rio de la Plata. It arrived in the IBI Collection as a work by Giovan Pietro Rizzoli, known as Giampietrino, one of the second generation of Milan artists to combine the style of Leonardo da Vinci with the tradition of Lombard naturalism.

Though very odd and wholly unacceptable, this attribution does contain an element of truth, in that the painting is reminiscent of Leonardo, albeit far removed from the style of his Milanese followers. Leonardesque motifs lingered on all the way up to the threshold of the 17th century also in the area of Siena through the long and prolific presence of Giovanni Antonio Bazzi from Novara, known as Sodoma, whose numerous followers in Tuscany included Bartolomeo Neroni, known as Riccio, his pupil and son-in-law. The style of these artists contrasts sharply with tormented, visionary and decidedly Mannerist vein of Beccafumi and his followers. As suggested by Andrea Spiriti in the description he wrote for the catalogue of 1998, it is possible to argue that the author of the small canvas was Francesco Vanni, an artist open to a whole range of the very different influences including Beccafumi, Zuccari, Barocci and Correggio. The works produced in the last phase of Vanni’s career (he died in 1610), and above all his small-sized devotional paintings, were characterized by an intimate atmosphere and dark hues far removed from the bright colours of his youth. The same stylistic characteristics, with a marked use of chiaroscuro and a contrast between sky and background, can also be found in larger works like the Episodes in the Life of Joseph in the Monte dei Paschi Collection. The face of the Virgin shows significant similarities to the face in the Immaculate Conception in the Cathedral of Montalcino. The wrinkled and almost caricatured face of Elizabeth also displays by no means fortuitous similarities with the equally aged face of the Saint Augustine in the Monte dei Paschi Collection [1].

The iconography, with the motif of the two children embracing, also shows the influence of Leonardo. The worship of John the Baptist, the forerunner, is combined here with worship of the Holy Family, accompanied by the figure of Saint Elizabeth, who gave birth to the Baptist very late in her life. The fidelity to tradition and devotion to which the painting refers makes it improbable that the older woman depicted is Saint Anne, Mary’s mother, as suggested by the title given to the work in the catalogue of 1998.