1776
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
The Holy Family is a 1776 unspecified by Gaetano Gandolfi, a Rococo painting work, depicting Holy Family, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus in a quiet room. Joseph holds a book open for the child, while Mary watches with gentle hands. A flowering rod leans against his knee—a sign from heaven. Gandolfi painted this for a church festival in Bologna. The figures feel real, not stiff like older religious art. Their faces show quiet love, not grand drama. Look up other works from Italy, 18th century to see how artists softened sacred scenes.
A work of Gandolfi's later years, The Holy Family was exhibited in the religious festival at the church of San Procolo in Bologna in 1776. The painting's balanced composition, along with the suggestion of emotional connections among the figures, expresses the religious honesty of Gandolfi's art. Here St. Joseph holds the scriptures for the Christ child, who sits on his mother's lap; the elderly Joseph also holds the flowering rod, a sign from heaven that he was chosen to be Mary's husband. Joseph looks with concern toward Mary, who in turn looks up toward the cherubim hovering in a cloud at…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Gaetano Gandolfi (31 August 1734 – 20 June 1802) was an Italian painter, draughtsman and sculptor of the late Baroque period, mainly active in and around Bologna.
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