The Holy Family

the sacred
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about the sacredOn the left side of the painting Mary in a red dress is caringly looking at Infant Jesus and is holding him in her arms. Jesus is tenderly caressing St. Joseph with one hand while with the other is blessing him. In the middle of the painting St. Anne is looking at the Holy Virgin and pointing to the heaven. On the right side of the painting St. Joseph is carefully contemplating the family.
Such a simplified representation symbolically shows both the theme of the sacred and the familiar affection in a perfect way. The attention to the feelings which is so evident in this painting is undoubtedly a sign of Leonardo’s style heritage, being the artist genius strongly affecting the Lombard art of the time.

Curiosity
The painting is a copy of lesser quality of the famous painting by Bernardini Luini, kept at Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. That painting was one of the favourite of Federico Borromeo who wanted it to be one of the most remarkable works of art of the Ambrosiana collection. Such a preference contributed to give the painting its utmost fame in the course of the centuries. Luini’ s painting is inspired as well to one of Leonardo’s cartons at the National Gallery in London.

Colour ranges

The ranges of dark and dark brown dominate in the painting. A light brown underlines both Jesus and Mary’s faces while the other characters’ complexion is darker. In the central part of the painting the ranges of red and the blue of the clothes alternate.

Analysis of light

The source of light comes from the top right and lights up Jesus’s body, Mary’s face and reflects upon her red dress. The same light reflects on the less contrasting shades the other three characters. The rest of the painting is in the shadow.

Study of the composition

Everything seems to turn around Infant Jesus’ blessing hand and face, which are in the middle of the painting, even though the position of Jesus is slightly moved to the right. The eyes of all the characters seem to follow in a circular line around Infant Jesus. All the figures are put in a diagonal perspective, which gives the whole representation a dynamic vibration.

Anonymous Lombard second half of XVII century oil on canvas 147x113 cm