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| Artist | Attributed to after Barocci, Federico (Italian painter, 1528-1612) |
| Title | The Carpenter's Shop |
| Date earliest | about 1550 |
| Date latest | about 1650 |
| Material | oil on canvas |
| Measurements | 146.5 x 195.5 cm |
| Description | In this scene from the childhood of Christ Mary is spinning while Joseph is working at the carpenter's bench with Jesus. The child is making small wooden crosses. A similarly poignant moment of family life is captured in The Rest on the Flight to Egypt (Rome, Pinacoteca Vaticana). Knowledge of Barocci's artistic training comes primarily from Bellori's biography of the artist. He is thought to have received his initial training in drawing from his father in Urbino and is placed in Rome in the middle of the 1550s. He received important cathedral commissions from this date on as well as being a successful portrait painter. The Duke of Urbino was his most important and generous patron. His religious scenes are infused with a characteristic tenderness, an almost ethereal handling of paint abd fragile looking figures. He was also adept at inventing unusual compositions and breathing new life into common subjects. |
| Subject | religion (the Holy Family, Joseph's carpentry shop) |
| Collection | Stockport Art Gallery and War Memorial |
| Current accession number | STOPM:KX.40 |
| Previous accession number(s) | No.14 Vernon Park Museum |
| Acquisition details | Given by John Benjamin Smith to Vernon Park Museum, Stockport, about 1879. |
| Provenance | Brancadori Palace, Rome; John Benjamin Smith, 1841. |
| Notes |
Inscription ul 'T' over '41'. |
| Rights status | Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council |
| Author | Lisa Howard |
