Madonna and child

Chimenti depicted the subject of the Madonna and Child multiple times throughout his career. Interestingly, the closest version to the work examined here is a "painting within a painting": a depiction of the Madonna and Child appears within the altarpiece of Saint Eligius and King Clovis, preserved in the Uffizi and executed by Empoli in 1614 for the chapel of the Compagnia degli Orefici in Via della Crocetta (1).

The chromatic palette of pastel garments and the compositional layout closely mirror the present painting. It can therefore be suggested that Empoli either relied on an already established model for the 1614 altarpiece which would date our painting prior to that work or that there was a reference study replicated by the artist on several occasions, leading him to include it within another composition. Furthermore, the Christ Child's face is nearly identical to that of one of the two putti in the altarpiece of San Giovanni Battista della Calza in Florence (2), indicating that the painter likely employed the same model.