Holy Family with St Elizabeth and St John the Baptist

Francesco Primaticcio’s Holy Family in the Hermitage can be considered to have a close analogy in Marcantonio Raimondi’s engraving “Madonna of the Long Thigh” after a drawing by Raphael. They have much in common: the overall compositional approach, the loose arrangement of the seated figures, their elongated proportions and the surrealistic architectural background that invests both scenes with a note of melancholic mystery. The striving after a pronounced elegance of forms, only suggested in Raphael’s composition, has been taken to the extreme in Primaticcio’s work. The Virgin’s miniature head, supported on a long, slender, curved neck, with a pointed chin and huge eyes, Elizabeth’s dark face, reminiscent of a mask, Mary’s incredibly long, thin bird-claw-like hands and equally disproportionately lengthy thighs – along with other anatomical absurdities – are a consequence of a completely unbridled pursuit of elegance, refinement and gracefulness that comes from Parmigianino and Correggio, but has its roots in Raphael’s art.