1345 - CARLO PREDA

CARLO PREDA The Education of the Virgin, c. 1700 Oil on canvas, 65x50 cm; unframed. The iconography of The Education of the Virgin is one of the most intimate, domestic, and affectionate themes in Western sacred art. Unlike the monumental scenes from the life of Christ or the grand Marian visions, this subject focuses on the intergenerational relationship between mother and daughter, while celebrating the transmission of faith and knowledge. Preda received his training from his maternal uncle, the painter Federico Bianchi, whose influence is very strong in his early works. From Bianchi, Preda derived his female physiognomic types and his lively, iridescent color palette, which—thanks to examples from Genoese and Venetian art—he would transform into an elegant Rococo style. His compositions are always arranged with refined elegance on diagonal planes, allowing him to create scenes with a remarkable narrative effect. The work presented here dates from the height of his artistic maturity, around 1700. Bibliography: See A. Maria Bianchi, “Carlo Preda,” in *Il Settecento Lombardo*, exhibition catalog edited by Rossana Bossaglia and Valerio Terraroli, Milan 1991, pp. 173–176 S. Coppa, “Carlo Preda,” in *Pittura a Milano dal Seicento al Neoclassicismo*, edited by M. Gregori, Milan 1999, pp. 286–288, plates 95–96