Results: 1
-
View: Detail
-
-
- Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617 - 1682)
- The Holy Family with the Infant Baptist
- Spain
-
- Date: c. 1670
- Object Type: Painting
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Image size: 168.6 x 130 cm
- Object size: 206 x 170 x 14 cm
- Inv: P58
- Location: Great Gallery
Copy and paste the URL below to share this page:
- Description
- Provenance
- Marks/Inscriptions
- Further Reading
-
- The subject of this painting of the Holy Family derives from the Franciscan Meditations on the Life of Christ. At the centre, the infant Christ shows his mother a scroll referring to himself as ‘The Lamb of God’ (‘Ecce Agn[us Dei]’). Lambs were symbols of innocence and humility, attributes traditionally associated with Christ himself and St John the Baptist. They were also sacrificial animals, thus the presence of the lamb in this painting foretells the Passion of Christ and the martyrdom of his cousin St John the Baptist. The infant John’s cruciform staff reinforces the pathos of the message.
Dateable to c.1670, the painting hung in the Sacristy of the Capilla de la Antigua in the Cathedral of Seville. Despite efforts to conceal the painting, it was removed by Marshal General Soult, commander-in-chief of the French troops in Spain, who had taken the city of Seville in 1810. It was later owned by W. Williams Hope at whose sale in 1849 it was bought by the 4th Marquess of Hertford.
- The subject of this painting of the Holy Family derives from the Franciscan Meditations on the Life of Christ. At the centre, the infant Christ shows his mother a scroll referring to himself as ‘The Lamb of God’ (‘Ecce Agn[us Dei]’). Lambs were symbols of innocence and humility, attributes traditionally associated with Christ himself and St John the Baptist. They were also sacrificial animals, thus the presence of the lamb in this painting foretells the Passion of Christ and the martyrdom of his cousin St John the Baptist. The infant John’s cruciform staff reinforces the pathos of the message.