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The Holy Family with Saint Anne and the Young Baptist and His Parents

early 1620s and 1650s
Not on view
Jordaens frequently revised his own paintings after many years, as he did here. The Christ Child, Mary and Joseph, the Virgin’s mother Saint Anne, and probably a version of the infant Saint John the Baptist were depicted as a close family gathering in the early 1620s. At least twenty-five years later the artist added boards to the oak panel and painted the Baptist’s parents, Saints Elizabeth and Zacharias, and an angel on the left. Their more painterly style contrasts with the Caravaggesque modeling of the earlier figures. The cartouche, inscribed "If the root be holy, so are the branches" (from Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Romans) was added during the second stage of work. The shift from intimate to didactic presentation is typical of Jordaens’s late work.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Holy Family with Saint Anne and the Young Baptist and His Parents
  • Artist: Jacob Jordaens (Flemish, Antwerp 1593–1678 Antwerp)
  • Date: early 1620s and 1650s
  • Medium: Oil on wood
  • Dimensions: 66 7/8 x 59 in. (169.9 x 149.9 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, 1871
  • Object Number: 71.11
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

More Artwork
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The Holy Family, after Jacob Jordaens, Jules-Ferdinand Jacquemart French, Etching on chine collé
The Holy Family, after Jacob Jordaens
Multiple artists/makers
1871
Study of a Young Girl Drinking from a Glass, Jacob Jordaens Flemish, Black and red chalk, heightened with white chalk, on light brown paper; framing lines in pen and brown ink
Study of a Young Girl Drinking from a Glass
Jacob Jordaens
ca. 1640–45
The Banquet of Anthony and Cleopatra, Jacob Jordaens Flemish, Pen and brown ink, watercolor, heightened with white gouache, over black chalk
The Banquet of Anthony and Cleopatra
Jacob Jordaens
17th century
Christ Healing the Paralytic, Jacob Jordaens Flemish, Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash
Christ Healing the Paralytic
Multiple artists/makers
ca. 1616–20
The Satyr and the Peasant
Jacob Jordaens
Lucas Vorsterman I

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