Joos van Cleve (1485 Cleves - 1540 in Antwerp) Circumference Madonna with the Infant St. John, the Lamb of God and two angels This charming, private devotional painting is an important testimony to the artistic exchange between Italian and Flemish painters during the Renaissance. The depiction, characterized by intimate affection between mother and child, is composed in a northern Alpine landscape with oak trees. The original compositional idea comes from the famous Corsini Madonna by the Florentine painter Andrea del Sarto (1486 - 1530), painted in 1513/14, which has only survived in a series of copies or workshop replicas. Other versions by Flemish painters bear witness to the success of the Corsini Madonna north of the Alps just a few years after its creation. The present painting deviates so far from the Italian source that it can clearly be assigned to the Flemish-Dutch art world - probably the circle of Joos van Cleve and his son Cornelis (1520 - 1567/70), who was working at the same time. The artist interpreted the Andrea del Sarto painting very freely, adopting Cornelis van Cleve's canopy stretched on oak branches, changing the position of the child and the depiction of Mary, who was given soft facial features and a warm, fur-lined dress. He added the standing boy John with the inscription "ECCE AGNUS DEI", the reclining Lamb of God with the staff of the cross and the lute in the hand of the angel on the right. Oil/oak panel. Two old 19th century collection seals verso; 35.5 cm x 30 cm. Frame. Among the comparable works are three paintings with the same composition sold at auction in recent years: Veilinghuis Loeckx, Ghent, 24.11.2015, lot 351; Artcurial, Paris, 13.11.2018, lot 10; Sotheby's, New York, 22.10.2021, lot 124. General reference: M. J. Friedländer: "Nachträgliches zu Cornelis van Cleve" in: Oud Holland, 60, 1943, pp. 7-14, fig. 1. Provenance: from the important collection of the Frankfurt banking family von Bethmann, which grew over generations. Circle of Joos van Cleve (1485 - 1540). Oil on oak panel. Two 19th C. collector's seals.