The Meeting of the Two Holy Families

Attributed to Giovanni Francesco Penni (?1496 - c.1536)

Charcoal and gouache on conjoined rectangles of paper, 298 x 308 cm; mounted on scrim after repairs, especially to the upper left corner, stretched and framed for the 2nd Duke in London.

Acquired, with an attribution to Raphael himself, in the same circumstances as the cartoon of The Vision of Ezekiel. Both cartoons are here attributed to G. F. Penni, il Fattore. No. 2 in the First State Room at Boughton (BH10)

PROVENANCE heirs of Raphael in Rome; les Gobelins, Paris; reputedly given by Louis XIV to Charles II of England, and by him to Ralph Montagu; certainly owned, and probably bought in Paris by John, 2nd duke of Montagu, hanging in the North Hall at Montagu House, Bloomsbury in 1733 where they were protected by green serge curtains; thence by descent.

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