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The Florentine sculptor Baccio Bandinelli produced a number of pen and ink studies on the theme of the Holy Family (the Virgin Mary, St Joseph, and the Christ Child), all drawn with his typically incisive clarity of contour and orderly hatching. However, the reclining Classical-style female figure with one bare breast (at centre) is not easily reconciled with traditional portrayals of the Virgin Mary. Rather, the arrangement of the figures in the present drawing may be inspired on the many variations of pose seen in the family groups among the Ancestors of Christ in Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling frescoes (1508-12).
As a draughtsman, Bandinelli derived some of his techniques from Michelangelo as well as Rosso Fiorentino.
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