Siena, 1563 -1610 · Counter-Reformation, clarity and baroccetic gentleness

Under a green canopy, the Virgin and Child welcome Cécile and Agnès: Vanni gives devotion a clear symmetry, animated by Barocci's tenderness.

Francesco Vanni was born and died in Siena, from 1563 to 1610. Painter and engraver, he studied with Arcangelo Salimbeni in his city, Giovanni de' Vecchi in Rome and probably Bartolomeo Passarotti in Bologna. The decisive influence, however, remains Federico Barocci, whose chromatic softness, emotional fervor and sequences of glances he takes up. Like the Carracci, Vanni reacted against a mannerism that had become too intellectual and responded to the demands for clarity of the Counter-Reformation. Supported by Cardinals Cesare Baronio and Paolo Emilio Sfondrati, he entered the Roman market and reached the peak of his career with a painting for Saint Peter of the Vatican in 1603. The Virgin and Child with Saints Cecilia and Agnes, painted between the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century, measures 135 × 90 cm. Almost symmetrical, it places Mary under a canopy between two kneeling saints and heavy green curtains lined with gold; it takes up a composition created for the Sant'Agnese church in Vignano, near Siena. The "Francesco Vanni" selection notably compares The Virgin and Child with Saints Cécile and Inès. His reading favors figures.

Vanni makes the doctrine immediately visible: symmetry gives order, color and looks give it life.