Holy Family with St Elizabeth and the young St John the Baptist

This work from the artist’s late period is a bozzetto, for which several preparatory drawings of individual figures have survived. For a long time the final altar-piece remained unknown, until it was identified in the Milan art market in 2007. Gaulli shows a meeting of the Holy Family with John the Baptist as a boy and his mother Elizabeth, against the background of a mountainous landscape where the wooded foothills meet a lake. They are resting under a tree, accompanied by three hovering angels reminiscent of the artist’s altar painting "Virgin with Child and St Anne" in San Francesco a Ripa in Rome. Jesus sits on his mother’s lap, holding a wooden cross with a banner bearing the words "Ecce agnus dei", and helped by John, who kneels before him, dressed in skins, a typical attribute. The significance of this group of three is enhanced by the light effect, behind which Elizabeth and Joseph withdraw into the background.

Ducke Astrid: Giovanni Battista Gaulli, called Baciccio, in: Ducke Astrid, Habersatter Thomas (Hrsg./Edi.): von | from 0 auf | to 100. Residenzgalerie Salzburg 1923-2023. Salzburg 2023, S./p. 140-141