ALBANI, Francesco
(b. 1578, Bologna, d. 1660, Bologna)

The Holy Family in a Landscape

1608-10
Oil on copper, 34 x 26 cm
Private collection

Small, highly finished cabinet pictures were a specialty of Albani's production and proved to be enormously popular with collectors, especially in France. Many were painted on copper, a technique he had learned during his years working in the studio of Denys Calvaert, a Flemish artist who had settled in Bologna and operated a successful workshop.

This devotional image of the Holy Family appears to have been particularly popular and it is known in a number of variations.