Description
Upon hearing rumor of a young king born to a virgin in Bethlehem, Herod, the ruler of Judea, jealously developed a plot to find and murder the infant Jesus. Fearing Herod's wrath, the Holy Family escaped to Egypt and eventually returned to Palestine-an echo of the great Exodus of the Old Testament. Conti trained in Rome but eventually made his career in Florence. Even given the pale colors, balletic poses, and attenuated forms, the sharp contrasts of dark and light, with figures emerging from deep shadow, attests to the long shadow of Caravaggio even in Florence a century later.
Provenance
Gabriello Riccardi (Florence, Italy), 1735; Kurt Rossacher, Salzburg, Austria, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974.
Accession Number
1974.2
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
Framed: 136.5 x 102.5 x 6 cm (53 3/4 x 40 3/8 x 2 3/8 in.); Unframed: 118.2 x 84.2 cm (46 9/16 x 33 1/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Canvas Italian
Background & Context
Background Story
Francesco Conti (1681-1760) was an Italian painter known for the elegantly composed religious paintings that make him one of the accomplished painters of the Florentine Baroque. Return to Nazareth from 1735 depicts the Holy Family's return to Nazareth in the elegantly composed, richly colored manner that distinguishes Conti's best work from the more general religious painting of his contemporaries. The 1735 date places this in Conti's most productive period, when he was producing the elegantly composed religious paintings that are his most accomplished works, and the Return to Nazareth subject shows his talent for combining religious narrative with elegant composition and rich color.
Cultural Impact
Return to Nazareth is important in the history of Florentine painting because it demonstrates the elegantly composed, richly colored manner that Conti brought to religious subjects as one of the accomplished painters of the Florentine Baroque. Conti's elegantly composed religious paintings—combining the rich color of the Florentine Baroque tradition with the elegant composition that is his most distinctive contribution—represent one of the accomplished traditions in Florentine painting, and the 1735 painting shows this tradition at its most elegantly composed.
Why It Matters
Return to Nazareth is Conti's elegantly composed Florentine Baroque: the Holy Family's return to Nazareth rendered in the richly colored manner of one of the accomplished painters of the Florentine Baroque. The 1735 painting shows the combination of religious narrative with elegant composition and rich color that makes Conti one of the accomplished Florentine Baroque painters.
![Saint Bernard and Saint Catherine of Alexandria with the Virgin of the Annunciation [right panel]](https://api.nga.gov/iiif/e6890364-4d99-4684-a62b-5060ee3c3446/full/400,/0/default.jpg)
