Scuola del Perugino (XVIII), After - Venere orante

A devotional painting of notable elegance, depicting the Virgin in half-figure with hands joined, downcast gaze, red robe and dark mantle edged in gold. The figure emerges on a uniform background, with a severe yet gentle construction of the face, oriented toward a Renaissance ideal of composure.

Stylistic and iconographic analysis suggests with good conviction a placement within Italian painting of the eighteenth century, with references to the figurative culture of central Italy and to the long fortune of Umbrian and Peruginesque models. The proposed framing constitutes the cataloguing basis of this entry and could be further refined through expert examination in person.

The quality of the brushwork, especially in the face and hands, appears higher than simple decorative serial production: the modeling is controlled, tonal transitions are soft, and the rendering of the fingers, nails, and flesh tones reveals an experienced painter’s hand. These aspects constitute one of the main elements of interest of the work.

Dating to the eighteenth century is considered highly probable on the basis of the characteristics of the painted surface, the craquelure, the conservation history, and family tradition. According to the current owner’s direct recollection, a seventeenth- or eighteenth-century chronology had already been indicated at the time of the conservation intervention carried out in Milan about twenty years ago.