European Art & Old Master Paintings

Literature
Massimo Pirondini, Emilio Negro and Nicosetta Roio, Leonello Spada [sic], Reggio Emilia, 2002, Plate LVI, pp. 163-164, no. 126 (another version illustrated).

Note
The present work is a (larger) variant of a similar composition previously known as the Holy Family and published in the 2002 monograph on the artist's work by Emilio Negro and Nicosetta Roio. As has now been proved, this Holy Family was in fact a fragment of a Rest on the Flight into Egypt scene, which would have featured the full figure of Joseph and Mary as well as an angel in the background, as exemplified by the present work. In their correspondance of August 6, 2016 in which Negro and Roio confirm the authenticity of the present work, they note that it was previously suspected that the Holy Family had indeed been cut down in the past.