Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami

The Holy Family with Saints Anne and John the Baptist

Artist/Maker Sofonisba Anguissola (Italy, ca. 1535-1625)

Date1592

Mediumoil on canvas

DimensionsSight: 49 1/2 x 43 1/2 in. (125.7 x 110.5 cm)
Framed: 61 x 52 in. (154.9 x 132.1 cm)

ClassificationsVisual Works

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Forbes Hawkes

Terms

Object number52.003.000

DescriptionIt was only in 1580s, at a point when her reputation was well established, that Sofonisba Anguissola began to paint multi-figure religious themes such as the Lowe’s Holy Family. In fact, this painting is one of the very few works to have survived from the last phase of her long and prolific career as one of the first women painters in Italy. The Holy Family with Saints Anne and John the Baptist was painted in Genoa, where Anguissola settled when she returned from Spain where she had been an artist at the court of King Philip II. This intimate, candlelit scene depicts the Holy Family in their home in Nazareth. The Virgin Mary, St. Anne, and the infant Jesus are exchanging balls of yarn that have been wound on the metal yarn-winding device depicted behind the family’s pet dog. The Baptist peers out from behind the table, while Joseph busies himself in the dark recesses of the room, faintly illuminated by the light of the oil lamp he is carrying.
Visual Description

This vertical oil on canvas depicts a dark, candlelit scene in which the infant Jesus stands unclothed between the cloth-draped knees of his seated mother, The Virgin Mary, while holding hands with St Anne. Candlelight falls on the center of the canvas, illuminating the light skin tone of the infant Jesus, and the long red dress of his mother. Wearing a dark gray habit, St Anne sits to our left of Mary, leaning out of the shadow toward the light falling on Jesus. In the shadows are two other figures: a small dog curled up atop a scroll at our lower lefthand corner, and a stooped hooded figure in a brown cloak at our upper left – Joseph carrying a dim light. On our right, a taller toddler with medium-light skin tone peeks out from behind a table to watch Jesus – young John the Baptist.

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