The Holy Family,
oil on panel laid down on board, 54 x 36.2 cm, framed

The prototype of this composition, which is based on a work by Joos van Cleve, dates from around 1625 and is now at the Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire. Joos van Cleve treated the theme in several variants, which over time have been classified by scholars as autograph versions, workshop replicas, or products by the workshop in whose execution the master participated. The version most closely related to the present composition is now at the Hermitage, St. Petersburg. It shows the half-figure of the Madonna with the Infant Jesus depicted standing on a stone balustrade. The Virgin Mary embraces the Child with her exquisitely elongated hands. The pose presented here is that of the Madonna Lactans, the nursing Madonna, a sign of God’s love of Man. Compared to the master’s prototype, the present painting has been modified in several details. Saint Joseph, wearing a different hat, is shown reading the Magnificat (Luke 1: 46–55). Having withdrawn from the scene, he does not interact with the Virgin Mary and the Child. His appearance and posture correspond to his subordinate, albeit important role in the Holy Family. On the balustrade, the Infant Jesus is depicted standing on a columbine, a symbol of the Holy Trinity, which can therefore be interpreted as an antipode to the Trinitas Terrestris, the terrestrial trinity shown here.

The present painting probably served as a model for two other, almost identical versions, which, although very close to it, differ in a number of significant details (see J. Hand, Joos van Cleve, The Complete Paintings, New Haven and London 2004, p. 133, cat. nos. 33.3 and 33.4). The subject was extremely popular at the time. The Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna owns a further version of this Holy Family dating from around 1515, to which Joos van Cleve added a landscape panorama behind the figure of Joseph. Still another version of the Holy Family, dated to circa 1513, is in the Friedsam Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.