VENETIAN SCHOOL of the 18th century.
San Cristoforo

St. Christopher holds the baby Jesus leaning on his shoulder and ferries him from one bank of the river to the other according to the classic iconography of tradition.

The painting recalls the ways of the Venetian Gian Battista Piazzetta (1682 - 1754), in particular with reference to the San Cristoforo of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, above all for the close physiognomic and stylistic similarity of the heads of both the Saint and the Child.

It could be a preparatory sketch for a larger canvas.