Madonna della cesta

By 1615 Peter Paul Rubens ran the busiest workshop in Antwerp, turning out altarpieces the size of walls. This is the other Rubens. It is a small panel, close and domestic, with Mary steadying the naked Christ Child on her knee while Joseph looks on from the shadow behind. The basket that gives the picture its name sits at her side, an ordinary household object dropped into a holy scene. A recent restoration found traces of paper stuck to the surface, probably from the drawing Rubens pressed onto the panel to transfer his design. For a time around 1800 the painting was confiscated by the French and sent to a museum in Dijon, then returned to Florence.