1805
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
The Holy Family (Christ in the Lap of Truth) is a 1805 by William Blake, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A woman in a blue robe holds a baby whose arms stretch wide like a cross. An older man and woman stand close, watching. The figures float against a dark, swirling background. Blake painted this scene from the Bible, but he didn’t follow the usual rules. The shapes are sharp and flat, almost like cut paper. He believed art should show visions, not real life. The baby’s pose hints at his future death, but the mood feels calm, not sad. To see more of Blake’s strange, dreamlike work, look up *William Blake (British, 1757–1827)*.
Although he rejected institutionalized religion, Blake was intensely spiritual, and much of his art was inspired by a highly personal reading of the Bible or by literature based upon it, such as John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667). The Virgin Mary is centered in this highly stylized composition. Upon her lap she clasps the infant Christ whose outstretched arms foreshadow the Crucifixion. The Mother and Child are flanked by Saint Joseph on the left, and Saint Anne (the Virgin’s mother), on the right. Below, Saint John the Baptist, who foretold Christ’s death and resurrection, plays with a lamb.
This drawing was first owned by Thomas Butts, an English civil servant who became William Blake's most important patron and supporter for about two decades.
Read the full account in the museum source.
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter and printmaker.
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