Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist ca. 1525–50 Northern French, Île-de-France (?) Carved in France, this graceful image is rooted in Italian Renaissance compositions. Leonardo da Vinci’s painting known as the Virgin of the Rocks and Raphael’s La Belle Jardinière (both Musée du Louvre, Paris) were models for the integration of these three holy figures into a compact, pyramidal format. Since both paintings belonged to King Francis I (1494 – 1547), it is not surprising that French sculptors emulated their famed designs. The subject was more popular in Italy than in France in t

Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist ca. 1525–50 Northern French, Île-de-France (?) Carved in France, this graceful image is rooted in Italian Renaissance compositions. Leonardo da Vinci’s painting known as the Virgin of the Rocks and Raphael’s La Belle Jardinière (both Musée du Louvre, Paris) were models for the integration of these three holy figures into a compact, pyramidal format. Since both paintings belonged to King Francis I (1494 – 1547), it is not surprising that French sculptors emulated their famed designs. The subject was more popular in Italy than in France in the sixteenth century, so few exemplars were available north of the Alps.[1]Italian, Flemish, and native French artists worked at the French court and around the Île-de-France in the first half of the sixteenth century; the character of this marble sculpture reflects that international mix. If the group owes its design to Italian precedent, its sweet demeanor and elegant gestures reflect the French manner. Placing it firmly within a particular atelier, however, is problematic because the era was one in which artists moved frequently across regions and borders. Some scholars link it to work in the Loire-valley town of Tours, but there is little basis for that attribution.[2] A stylistic point of departure is offered by the four virtues seated on the corners of the tomb of Louis XII (1462 – 1515) and Anne of Brittany in the cathedral of Saint-Denis, north of Paris.[3] Carved by the Italians Jean Juste and his brothers between 1515 and 1531, these calm, contained figures covered with broad swaths of drapery represent a fundamental model for our marble. They share aspects of the style of several sculptors whose work followed the Justes’. An atelier traditionally known as that of Saint-Léger, named for a town south of Troyes in the Champagne region, took a similar approach in the relative simplicity and gravity of their figures, the precision of their details

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