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Your galleryThe Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist
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Follow the glances of Elizabeth at the right and of Joseph and John at the left, and notice how each one leads back to Mary.
Rubens told this sacred story in everyday terms: no one wears a halo, and the adults are dressed as people of his own time. Joseph tends a lamb, a sign of Christ’s future sacrifice, while the elderly Elizabeth and her son, the young John the Baptist, look on. The picture was an early success, and Rubens had his assistants paint other versions and ordered engravings after it.
Oil on panel · 114.5 × 91.5 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Baroque
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Details and source
- Museum title
- The Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist
- Artist
- Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640)
- Date
- c. 1615
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Dimensions
- 114.5 × 91.5 cm (45 1/8 × 36 in.); Framed: 137.8 × 115.6 × 12.7 cm (54 1/4 × 45 1/2 × 5 in.)
- Credit line
- Major Acquisitions Fund
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.