Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist  1575

Santi di Tito’s work was exceptional in the latter half of the sixteenth century in Florence for its shift towards naturalism and away from the artificiality of much Mannerist painting. This panel was probably painted in the 1570s, and recalls the work of earlier artists such as Raphael and Andrea del Sarto, but with a new immediacy and painterly quality. The exceptionally...