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Your galleryChrist and the Virgin in the House at Nazareth
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Look at the finger the boy has just pricked and the tears on Mary’s cheek, then at the tilted table with its books and fruit.
The young Jesus weaves a crown of thorns and pricks his finger, a sign of his future suffering on the cross, while his mother watches with tears on her face. Zurbarán seems to have invented this scene rather than taking it from the Bible, at a time when stories of Christ’s childhood were popular because anyone could follow them. The canvas is large, but its mood is hushed and domestic.
oil on canvas · Framed: 201 x 256 x 10 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art · Baroque
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Christ and the Virgin in the House at Nazareth
- Artist
- Francisco de Zurbarán (Spanish, 1598–1664)
- Date
- c. 1640
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 201 x 256 x 10 cm (79 1/8 x 100 13/16 x 3 15/16 in.); Unframed: 165 x 218.2 cm (64 15/16 x 85 7/8 in.)
- Credit line
- Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.