Holy Family with St Elizabeth and Young John Baptist 19th century Oil Painting ^Sale

This tender depiction of the Holy Family represents a subject which was central to Raphael's oeuvre. The painting is based on the famous panel by Giulio Romano, called Madonna della Gatta, now in the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples. The canvas depicts the full-length seated Virgin supporting the Christ Child with her right arm and putting her left on the back of Saint Elizabeth, who is crouched beside her on the right, with the young John the Baptist offering fruit on the left and Saint Joseph standing in the background; on the right is a cat and a pair of pigeons in the interior. Painted by an unidentified painter of the 19th century. Antique oil painting, signed verso indistinct (see pictures), framed.
Size app.: 77.5 x 64.5 cm (roughly 30.5 x 25.4 in), frame is 90 x 77.7 cm (roughly 35.4 x 30.6 in). Very good conserved condition, age and usage wear, retouched damages to frame, (please ignore uneven painting surface as it was lightly touched with oil for better pictures). Please study good resolution images for cosmetic condition. In person actual painting may appear darker or brighter than in our pictures, strictly depending on sufficient light in your environment. Weight of app. 4.9 kg is going to measure 7 kg packed for shipment.
Originally "Madonna of the Cat" is a 1522 - 1523 oil on wood painting by Giulio Romano, now in the National Museum of Capodimonte in Naples. It draws on the pyramidical compositions of Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael and takes its name from the domestic cat in the foreground, which allows it to be identified with a work known as "il quadro della gatta" (the painting of or with the cat) by Vasari, who saw it in Mantua in 1566. The same cat recurs in the artist's 1524 - 1525 The Lovers. The work was probably produced for Federico Gonzaga while the artist was still in Rome and thus formed part of the Gonzaga collection for a time. In the late 16th century it is recorded in the collection of Barbara Sanseverino, a noblewoman from Parma and lover and confidant of Vincenzo / Gonzaga. The Farnese family confiscated artworks from several local nobles and thus the work entered the Farnese collection from Sanseverino's collection in 1612. It was one of the works inherited by Charles of Bourbon around 1737 and was then moved to Naples, where it remains.