Conservation generously sponsored by the Save Venice Boston.

Giovanni Galizzi, born in the small town of Santa Croce near Bergamo, was active in Venice for at least twenty-two years between 1543 and 1562. He received his initial artistic training in the workshop of his cousin, Francesco Rizzo da Santa Croce, a painter profoundly influenced by the Venetian master Giovanni Bellini. Subsequently, Galizzi became affiliated with a circle of artists shaped by the pictorial innovations of Titian, among them Polidoro da Lanciano, who had migrated to Venice from the Abruzzo region in the mid-1530s. The nature of Galizzi’s relationship with Jacopo Tintoretto remains a matter of speculation. It has been proposed that the two may have crossed paths in the studio of Bonifacio Veronese, where Galizzi is thought to have worked as an assistant and where he likely formed significant professional connections.

This small canvas, depicting the Madonna and Child with Saint Andrew and the Infant John the Baptist, reflects a painterly approach reminiscent of Giovanni Bellini’s compositions, yet the refined elegance of the figures is more characteristic of Polidoro da Lanciano. Echoes of Jacopo Tintoretto—once considered the author of the work—are evident, particularly in the elongated pose of the Child, who lies on his mother’s lap with the right arm resting on the Virgin’s throne. The Virgin’s face—with its long, beak-shaped nose and downcast eyes contemplating her son—is perhaps the most compelling feature linking this painting to Galizzi. A nearly identical visage appears in the signed 1547 altarpiece now housed in the Museo Parrocchiale of Santa Maria Assunta in Vertova, where the Virgin and Child are depicted in the upper section. Similar evidence supports the attribution of the figure of Saint Andrew, whose features align with an older male type first developed by Galizzi in the Vertova altarpiece and later repeated across several of his works.

The small dimensions of the painting and its intimate subject matter suggest that it was likely intended for private devotion, perhaps originally displayed in the home—or even the bedchamber—of a patron named after Saint Andrew. Particularly noteworthy is the Apostle’s gaze: his wide-open eyes fixed on the Christ Child seem designed to draw the viewer’s attention to the Savior’s fate, emphasized by the cross Andrew holds.

The painting is covered by a thick layer of deteriorated, brownish varnish that obscures the painted surface. All the figures exhibit signs of overpainting and pictorial retouching that have aged unevenly, particularly on the faces of the Virgin, the Christ Child, and Saint John the Baptist. Significant areas of inpainting are also visible on Saint Andrew’s mantle. Given that the work remains little known even among specialists, its conservation—along with accompanying scientific analysis—would provide a valuable opportunity to examine the painting more closely and revisit the question of its authorship, which has long been debated and at times tentatively attributed either to the young Tintoretto or Polidoro da Lanciano.

Giovanni Galizzi (active 1543 – died 1565)
Madonna and Child with Saint Andrew and the Infant John the Baptist
early 1540s, oil on canvas
78,5 x 105,5 cm

Avogadro, Adriano (ed.). Catalogo dei Santacroce. “Quaderni Brembani,” 16, 2017, pp, 197-213

Echols, Robert. Giovanni Galizzi and the Problem of the Young Tintoretto. “Artibus et Historiae,” 16, 31, 1995, pp. 69-110