Giovanni Baglione, one of the most important protagonists of the Roman scene at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Born between 1566 and 1568, he trained first in the workshop of Francesco Morelli, where he began as a mannerist painter and a decorator, but his first works are linked to the great renovation sites of the Roman monuments of Pope Sixtus V. Together with a host of painters such as Giuseppe Guerra, Cesare Nebbia, Andrea Lilio, and the Conti brothers, he worked on the Scala Santa, in the Lateran Palace, in the Vatican and above all in the Sistine Chapel of Santa Maria Maggiore.In those years, Baglione met the Cavalier d'Arpino with whom he worked between 1599 and 1600, but at that moment in Rome, the star of Caravaggio was also flourishing, who was working on his first demanding work, the Contarelli Chapel at the turn of the century. The Virgin is seated, wears a rich red robe, covered by a cloak and pink veil. Baby Jesus is standing on her lap, with curly blond hair framing the face with a red complexion. The little Christ holds out his hands to the young John the Baptist, also standing near Mary's leg, who prays to his cousin with his hands joined. Below, in the foreground, there is the head of a lamb, an iconographic attribute to the Baptist. Oil on canvas 97 x 75,5 cm