Guglielmo Caccia, il Moncalvo (?Montabone, Asti 1568-1625 Moncalvo)

Moncalvo, the most sensitive Piedmontese painter of his generation and a notably delicate draftsman, was strongly influenced by the Renaissance masters of the area, most obviously Gaudenzio Ferrari. The type of the Madonna in this canvas goes back, ultimately, to the Lombard followers of Leonardo; and the setting against strata of rocks also reflects Leonardesque models. The putto on the right is virtually identical with one in the Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (Turin, Galleria Sabauda): both putti may derive from one in a study of two putti in the Biblioteca Reale, Turin, from which the harp is omitted.