Holy Family
c. 1450
Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
50.2 × 47.8 cm (19 3/4 × 18 3/4 in.); Framed: 59.7 × 59.1 cm (23 1/2 × 23 1/4 in.)
Classification
oil on panel
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
16275
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This view of the Holy Family in an interior is filled with the trappings of a comfortable bourgeois existence. Its unknown maker was probably working from a repertory of pattern drawings derived from the most innovative Netherlandish painters of the early 15th century, Rogier van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck. The pose of the Virgin and the buffet with its brass and pewter vessels are particularly indebted to their work. At the same time, the painting’s dry style and its use of a spruce rather tha...
About the Artist
German
**German, Franconia (active ca. 1485–1500)** was an anonymous artist from the Franconian region of northern Bavaria, Germany, renowned for his contributions to late Gothic graphic arts. Little is known of his early life or training, as details about many anonymous masters from this era remain undocumented. Franconia, with its vibrant artistic centers like Nuremberg, fostered a rich tradition of re...