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Your galleryThe Holy Family on the Steps
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- What catches your attention?
- Where does your eye go next?
- What would you ask about this work?
Show me
Look at the clear red, blue and yellow of the robes against the gray stone steps, then find the apple in John’s hand and the compass in Joseph’s.
The picture looks simple, but Poussin built it as a reflection on how the Holy Family takes part in saving humankind. John the Baptist offers the Christ Child an apple, recalling the fall from grace in Eden, while Joseph, in shadow, holds a compass, a carpenter’s tool that also stands for God the Father. To study the fall of light, Poussin set small wax figures in a box pierced with holes.
oil on canvas · Framed: 103.5 x 135.3 x 13.3 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art · Baroque
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Details and source
- Museum title
- The Holy Family on the Steps
- Artist
- Nicolas Poussin (French, 1594–1665)
- Date
- 1648
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 103.5 x 135.3 x 13.3 cm (40 3/4 x 53 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.); Unframed: 73.3 x 105.8 cm (28 7/8 x 41 5/8 in.); Former: 72.3 x 104 cm (28 7/16 x 40 15/16 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.