After Boltraffio, ​“Sacra Conversazione”

Kenyon Cox studied in Paris, as did many nineteenth-century American art students from affluent families. While there, he trained with well-known French artists, but his works were largely influenced by classical and Renaissance art. This small painting is a copy of a work in the Louvre by Italian Renaissance artist Giovanni Boltraffio (about 1467-1516). Sacra conversazione, or sacred conversation, was a common subject during the Renaissance and generally portrayed the Virgin and child surrounded by saints. Boltraffio's version depicts the Virgin and child with John the Baptist, Saint Sebastian, and the patrons of the painting, Giacomo Marchione de Pandolfi da Casio and his son Girolamo Casio.