Artwork
Heilige Familie
Heilige Familie is an unspecified painting by the Early Baroque Italian artist Hans Rottenhammer. It dates from 1598 and is held in the collection of the Bavarian State Painting Collections.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The painting depicts the Holy Family, a devotional subject centered on the Virgin Mary, the Christ Child, and Saint Joseph.
The painting depicts the Holy Family, a devotional subject centered on the Virgin Mary, the Christ Child, and Saint Joseph. In Christian iconography, this grouping represents the earthly family of Jesus and serves as a model of piety, humility, and domestic harmony, themes that were especially popular in Counter-Reformation religious art.
Rendered as a small-scale religious work, the composition concentrates devotional meaning on the intimate bond between mother, child, and foster father, inviting private contemplation rather than grand narrative display.
Technique & Style
Heilige Familie is classified as a painting within the religious genre, produced in 1594 by Hans Rottenhammer. The work is held by the Bavarian State Painting Collections at the Alte Pinakothek, where it is catalogued as BStGS 1652. Its physical format is compact, measuring 24.4 cm in height by 19 cm in width, and it depicts the Holy Family, Mary, the Christ Child, and Joseph, as its main subject.
No further details regarding specific medium, support, handling, condition, or stylistic qualities are documented in the available sources.
History & Provenance
The Heilige Familie in the Bavarian State Painting Collections (Alte Pinakothek) is dated 1594 by the institution and by Wikidata, aligning with Rottenhammer’s documented early output in Munich.
No archival record of a specific commission has been published, but the panel’s small, devotional format suggests it was made for a private patron rather than an ecclesiastical institution. The work entered the collection now known as the Bavarian State Painting Collections by the mid-19th century, when it was inventoried as BStGS 1652.
The painting is held by the Bavarian State Painting Collections, where it is housed at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. Within the collection's holdings it is recorded under the inventory number BStGS 1652. The work, dated 1594, is catalogued as a religious piece depicting the Holy Family.
No exhibition history is documented in the available sources.
Overview
Hans Rottenhammer’s 1598 oil painting, titled Heilige Familie, presents a small‑scale, intimate grouping of figures set against a misty landscape. The composition centers on a woman in a pale pink garment cradling a naked infant, flanked by a kneeling child in red, a shepherd‑like elder with a staff, and two cherubic figures above. Soft light suffuses the scene, lending a tranquil atmosphere.
Artist & collection
Artist
Johann Rottenhammer, or Hans Rottenhammer (1564 – 14 August 1625), was a German painter. He specialized in highly finished paintings on a small scale.
- The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine
Die Heilige Familie mit Anna, Elisabeth, Johannes und einem Engel
Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Anbetung der Hirten
Holy Family with John the Baptist as child
The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine
The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist in a Landscape
The Adoration of the Shepherds
Zacharias gibt Johannes den Namen
Rest on the Flight into Egypt
The Holy Family under the Apple Tree
The Holy Family