Artwork
Holy Family with Saints
Holy Family with Saints is an oil painting by the Mannerist artist El Greco. It dates from 1600 and is held in the collection of the Museo del Prado.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The painting belongs to the religious genre and centers on the Holy Family as its main subject.
The painting belongs to the religious genre and centers on the Holy Family as its main subject. Additionally, the composition incorporates a bowl among the depicted elements. The work's title, Holy Family with Saints, indicates that the central grouping of the Holy Family is accompanied by additional saintly figures, a common iconographic choice in religious art that expands the spiritual narrative and symbolic meaning of the domestic holy scene.
Technique & Style
Holy Family with Saints is an oil painting executed by El Greco on a canvas support. Created between 1595 and 1600, the work measures 107 cm in height and 68.5 cm in width. As a religious composition, the piece depicts the Holy Family alongside other saints and includes a bowl within the scene. The handling of the oil medium on canvas aligns with the artist's established practice during this period.
History & Provenance
The work entered the collection of the Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer in Vilanova i la Geltrú, where it remains today. It was previously held by the Museo del Prado in Madrid, which transferred custody to the Víctor Balaguer Museum. The painting is dated to around 1600, aligning with El Greco’s late period.
Its creation likely followed a commission within Spain’s religious milieu, though no direct contract survives. The canvas measures 107 cm in height and 68.5 cm in width.
The painting is held by the Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer in Vilanova i la Geltrú and by the Museo del Prado in Madrid, where it is accessioned under Spanish state ownership.
It was shown at the Museo del Prado, Madrid, in the exhibition "El Greco y la pintura europea de su tiempo" held from 24 November 1982 to 27 February 1983.
Overview
El Greco’s Holy Family with Saints, executed in oil around 1600, presents a compact group of figures set against a luminous, cloud‑filled sky. The composition centers on a woman in a blue mantle holding an infant, while another child’s hand is clasped. An elderly woman in gray leans forward, and a man in green stands to the right, his expression solemn. The work resides in the Museo del Prado.
Context
The painting aligns with Counter‑Reformation demands for clear, emotionally resonant religious imagery. El Greco’s elongated figures and ethereal lighting echo his Byzantine roots while adapting to Spanish Baroque sensibilities. The composition’s intimate scale and focus on familial tenderness were intended to inspire personal devotion among viewers of the period.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Doménikos Theotokópoulos was born in 1541 in Candia (modern Heraklion), the capital of Venetian-ruled Crete, where he was trained in the post-Byzantine tradition of icon painting.
