Contessa Vittoria Chiericati Salvioni.

E. Negro & Nicosetta Roio, Alessandro Tiarini, Reggio Emilia, 2000, p. 147, no. 102 a.

D. Benati, Alessandro Tiarini. L'Opera Pittorica Completa e I Disegni, Milan, 2001, II, p. 102, under no. 171. 

Alessandro Tiarini was the godson of the painter Lavinia Fontana, and began his artistic studies under her father, Prospero, until his death in 1597. Tiarini moved in Florence in the late 1590s, forced to leave Bologna due to legal proceedings, and was documented in the Tuscan town between 1599 and 1606. There he entered into the workshop of Domenico Passignano, who introduced the young painter to the other Florentine painters who were working in a proto-Baroque style, advocating a more naturalistic style of figure painting. After assisting with the frescoes in the cloister of the monastery of San Marco in 1602, he undertook several commissions across Tuscany.

In around 1606-7 Tiarini returned to Bologna, possibly on Ludovico Carracci’s request; the older artist’s work strongly influenced Tiarini from around this time onwards. In the mid-1610s Tiarini reached his artistic maturity, producing masterpieces that reflecting the grand manner of Ludovico, and undertaking significant decorative works namely the fresco decorations of the Cappella Ruggeri-Brami in Santa Maria dell Ghiara, Reggio Emilia, between 1618 and 1629. Between 1620 and 1630, Tiarini came in contact with the work of Correggio, Parmigianino and Morazzone; this period is considered to be his best, during which he undertook numerous commissions for patrons in Reggio Emilia, Bologna, Parma, Mantua, Cremona and Faenza.

The present painting, likely made in the 1620s, is one of two versions of this subject painted by Tiarini. The other, oil on copper, is currently in the collection of the Museum of Bordeaux having been acquired from the collection of the Marquis de Lacazare, in 1829. Olivier Bonfait has tentatively suggested that the Bordeaux painting is in fact the same work as was recorded as having been part of the Conti collection in Bologna and was recorded in situ in Palazzo Zampieri, Bologna.

The painting depicts the young Virgin Mary being presented by her parents Saints Anne and Joachim to the Holy Trinity. According to tradition, as a child, Mary was brought by her parents to the Temple in Jerusalem to offer thanks to God, who had granted the previously childless couple their only daughter.

Our painting, which is the second version, is painted on a poplar panel and is of extremely high quality. Originally it came from the historic Chiericati family of Vicenza.