Bring your favorites together in your free personal gallery.
Your galleryThe Return of the Holy Family to Nazareth
Look first
- What catches your attention?
- Where does your eye go next?
- What would you ask about this work?
Show me
Follow the child’s raised arms up to the angels on the cloud, then look down at the boatman leaning on his pole.
The Holy Family’s flight into Egypt, to escape King Herod’s massacre of infant boys, was a common subject, but the age of the child here suggests their much rarer return home. Jesus reaches toward angels who carry a cross, a sign of his future death and a reminder of the children Herod killed. The painting belonged to the Princes of Liechtenstein from at least 1733 until 1952.
oil on canvas · Framed: 159.5 x 124 x 14.5 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art · Baroque
Look again
What do you notice now?
Try a quick sketch
Take a minute to sketch on any paper. No upload needed.
What did you draw first? What did you leave out?
Details and source
- Museum title
- The Return of the Holy Family to Nazareth
- Artist
- Nicolas Poussin (French, 1594–1665)
- Date
- c. 1627
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 159.5 x 124 x 14.5 cm (62 13/16 x 48 13/16 x 5 11/16 in.); Unframed: 134 x 99 cm (52 3/4 x 39 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of the Hanna 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.