The Holy Family

In 1749 Prince Giberto Pio, whose family had long since moved from Rome to Madrid, asked Pope Benedict XIV for permission to take the family's paintings out of the city. An old legal trust bound the collection to Rome and kept it whole, and the pope agreed a year later on one condition. His secretary of state, Cardinal Silvio Valenti Gonzaga, could first choose whatever the papacy wanted. He kept the finest pictures in Rome for the new gallery on the Capitol, among them this large canvas by Dosso Dossi, painted around 1528. It carries inventory number PC 1, the first number of the Pinacoteca Capitolina. The Virgin sits on the second step of a grey stone stair and turns towards her son, holding an open illuminated book as if showing him a passage. The naked Child stretches his arms out to her, held up by Joseph, who stands on the right. Behind them, to the right, the view opens onto a lake.