The Holy Family on the Steps
1648
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 73.3 × 105.8 cm
- Status
- In Museum Collection
- Collect24 Art ID
- C24-109073
This deceptively simple composition represents a complex meditation on the Holy Family’s role in the redemption of humanity. At the center, Mary presents the Christ child to the world. At the left, Saint Elizabeth leans forward to foretell his eventual death, while her son, Saint John the Baptist, offers Jesus an apple, signifying humanity’s fall from grace in the Garden of Eden. At the right, Saint Joseph holds a compass, a sign of his occupation as a carpenter and also symbolic of God the Father. Poussin developed his composition meticulously and deliberately, using clear primary colors, si…
Provenance
Fund, 1981.18
Registry history
- 1648 — Recorded in the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
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