48 - Lorenzo Masucci

Lorenzo Masucci (Rome 1726–1785) Virgin with Child and Saint John the Baptist Oil on canvas mounted on panel 33 x 27 cm. Framed The painting is accompanied by an expert report by Prof. Giancarlo Sestieri. This refined Madonna and Child with the infant Saint John the Baptist, set in a domestic interior between a draped curtain and a window opening onto a mountainous landscape, belongs to the Classicist and Rococo tradition of mid-eighteenth-century Roman painting. The balanced composition, still rooted in the tradition of Carlo Maratti, reflects the contemporary Roman taste for grace and delicacy.Giancarlo Sestieri attributes the painting to Lorenzo Masucci, based on close comparisons with documented works by the artist, including the *Rest on the Flight into Egypt* in Santa Maria dell’Orazione e Morte, Rome, and the *Education of the Virgin* in the Santissimo Nome di Maria, Rome. This work reflects the synthesis between the influence of his father, Agostino Masucci, and the early Neoclassical influence of Mengs, characteristic of the young artist’s work. W. Apolloni Gallery, Rome; private collection, Rome.