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Source Description
The subject of this painting is the celebration of Christ's birth even though the infant Christ, who stands in his mother's lap, seems much older than a newborn. The traditional witnesses of Christ's birth in the Bethlehem stable, the ox and the ass, stand at the left. The procession in the background signals a later event: the arrival of the three wise men from the East to pay homage to the Messiah.The painting is spectacular for its many plant and animal details, each with a specific symbolic significance. For instance, the snail in the right corner was often meant to suggest sin because of its trail of slime, and the red poppy (the second flowering plant on the left) is a traditional symbol of Christ's Passion because of its color.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
13789
label
The Holy Family with an Angel
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
citationUrl
pageCount
2
Source metadata
id
13789
sourceUrl
contentType
drawing
stage
normalized
title
The Holy Family with an Angel
description
The subject of this painting is the celebration of Christ's birth even though the infant Christ, who stands in his mother's lap, seems much older than a newborn. The traditional witnesses of Christ's birth in the Bethlehem stable, the ox and the ass, stand at the left. The procession in the background signals a later event: the arrival of the three wise men from the East to pay homage to the Messiah.The painting is spectacular for its many plant and animal details, each with a specific symbolic significance. For instance, the snail in the right corner was often meant to suggest sin because of its trail of slime, and the red poppy (the second flowering plant on the left) is a traditional symbol of Christ's Passion because of its color.
provenance
Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1897 catalogue: no. 504, as Lucas Cranach the younger]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
date
ca. 1485 (Renaissance)
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Painting & Drawing
oil paintings (visual works)
imageCount
2
pageCount
2
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
70.5
height
46.7
dimensionsRaw
Painted surface H: 27 3/4 x W: 18 3/8 in. (70.5 x 46.7 cm); Panel H: 28 1/4 x W: 18 7/8 x D excluding auxiliary support: 1/4 in. (71.7 x 48 x 0.7 cm)
Source extras
med
oil on wood panel
creator_ids
5533
collection_ids
REN
exhibition_ids
2646
Page inventory
seq
1
type
photo
mediaId
3b32fb93f0d45a70
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
2
type
photo
mediaId
cc943d6b2a21dc3e
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no