A Review of "Francesco Vanni You can generally depend on Italian Renaissance art for tasteful, traditional Christmas imagery, and "Francesco Vanni: Art in Late Renaissance Siena" at Yale University Art Gallery delivers plenty of Madonnas, angels and adorable infants. But it also offers a view of European art at a moment of upheaval and of an artist working in the centers of religious power and responding to these changes. Francesco Vanni (about 1563-1610) was the most important painter in Siena during the Italian Counter-Reformation, an era of revival and reformation of the Catholic church following the Council of Trent in the mid-1500s. Art played a significant role during this period, particularly in the redecoration of churches, and Vanni painted altarpieces for nearly every major church in Siena. As he journeyed to Bologna and Rome, his reputation grew; around 1600 he caught the attention of two cardinals in Rome and was commissioned by Pope Clement VIII to paint one of the altarpieces for the newly completed St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Because Vanni's work was made for churches in Italy and not broken up and parceled out to museums, it is little seen in this country. With 60 drawings, paintings and prints, the current exhibition, organized by John J. Marciari, a former curator at Yale, and Suzanne Boorsch, a current curator there, is the largest since a 1976 Vanni exhibition at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Part of the impetus for this show was Yale's 2003 acquisition of "The Rest on the Flight Into Egypt," also known as "Madonna della Pappa" from around 1599, which naturally serves as the centerpiece for the show. The current show was scheduled to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Vanni's death in 2010, but was delayed because of the renovation of Yale's galleries; this is also the first exhibition with international loans in the new space. In the "Madonna della Pappa," a rosy blond angel appears before the Holy Family, offering a bowl of moistened bread (the "pappa"), which the Virgin reaches out to feed to the infant Christ. By this point in his career, Vanni had moved past the influence of his stepfather, Arcangelo Salimbeni, with whom he studied in Siena, and was turning the corner from a sharp shift in 1585 influenced by Federico Barocci, a painter based in Urbino whom Vanni seems never to have met. Barocci's bright, acidic colors are here, but you can also see a creeping naturalism and the influence of the Carracci family, artists whose work Vanni saw on his visits to Bologna. The only other Vanni painting in the Western Hemisphere, according to the catalog, is the "Virgin Offering the Christ Child to Saint Francis" (1599), on loan here from the Museum of Art and Design, Rhode Island School of Design. A moody vertical canvas with the Virgin at its apex and two monks at its pyramidal base, the painting shows some of the Counter-Reformation leanings toward mystical subject matter - but also the rise of the Capuchin Franciscan order at this time. Vanni himself was a religious man. He became involved in the Confraternity of the Sacro Chiodo, which Mr. Marciari describes in the catalog as "not a casual organization but rather one notable - even notorious - for its zealous devotional practices." Members met nightly to recite psalms and were expected to attend Mass and go to confession every day. Along with this - as in the work of many Counter-Reformation painters, like Caravaggio - came a zest for mystical subject matter: visions, conversions, martyrdoms and miracles. A "Compositional Study for Saint Catherine of Siena Delivering a Possessed Person" (1593-96), done in chalk and brown wash, depicts one of Vanni's favorite subjects. He created more images of Saint Catherine of Siena than any other figure, and a series of engravings done in 1597, "Life of Saint Catherine of Siena," veer from the visionary and miraculous (saving a child from death or with Saint Catherine floating on a cloud) to the disgusting - euphemistically described as "charitable deeds" - like drinking blood dripping from a hole in Christ's side. While Mr. Marciari's catalog essay follows the development of Vanni's career, pointing out his "creative quotation" of other artists and the "creative pilfering" or repurposing of elements from his own work as he got more famous and busy, Ms. Boorsch's essay focuses on prints. Vanni made only three etchings himself, but his "designs" (generally drawings) were frequently translated into engravings by professional printers, often based in northern Europe. In this way his work was disseminated and seen by other artists. Among the prints here, the most striking is his magnificent "Map of Siena" from the mid-1590s, executed by Pieter de Jode I, son of a famous Antwerp cartographer, Gerard de Jode. The buildings of Siena are depicted with a detailed accuracy that, Vanni wrote in a letter quoted in the catalog, took many months to create "using all diligence for sites and measures, and rendering in perspective the difficulty of these strange hills." At the top of the map, standing on a cloud, is the Virgin, protector of the city. This was not an unusual image. What is remarkable, however, is a "celestial glory" of 55 figures arranged in hierarchical groups alongside her. The groups are labeled several ways: those "Sainted by the Church," "Crowned by Martyrdom for the Faith in Christ," "Founders of Religious Orders" and "Others Conspicuous for the Sanctity of Their Life." Coming at the end of the Renaissance, a period known for the development of scientific inquiry, humanism, neo-Platonism and other forms of thought that would lead toward a more secular world, Vanni's map is striking. It is a reminder of the moment in which he worked and the religious zeal of the Counter-Reformation. But it is also an interesting document in which the earthly and celestial could coexist, both depicted in minute detail, as the catalog suggests, like a "photographic image avant la lettre." That is, before photography existed - except, perhaps, as a vision. "Francesco Vanni: Art in Late Renaissance Siena," Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel Street, New Haven, through Jan. 5. For information: (203) 432-0600 or artgallery.yale.edu.