Holy Family in an Oval Frame
1623
Medium
Chiaroscuro woodcut from three blocks, on paper
Dimensions
Image/block: 30.8 × 21.2 cm (12 3/16 × 8 3/8 in.); Sheet: 31.7 × 22.3 cm (12 1/2 × 8 13/16 in.)
Classification
woodcut
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
104237
Art Historical Context
**Holy Family in an Oval Frame (1623) by Ludolphsinck captures a tender moment of the Virgin Mary cradling the Christ Child, with Saint Joseph nearby, framed in an elegant oval. This chiaroscuro woodcut, from three blocks on paper exemplifies early 17th-century Northern European printmaking. Büsinck, a artist active in Haarlem and, drew inspiration from Baroque masters like Caravaggio, emphasizing dramatic light and shadow to evoke spiritual depth and intimacy. The chiaroscuro technique—using a line block for contours and tone blocks for subtle gradations of light and dark—mimics the painterl...