Holy Family with Saints
1610–42
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
4 1/2 x 6 3/16 in. (11.5 x 15.7 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Harry G. Friedman, 1959
Accession Number
59.644.112(1)
Tags
Art Historical Context
Pierre Brebiette'sHoly Family with Saints*, etching from around 161–42, captures a moment in Christian iconography The small-scale print (4 1/ x 6 316 in.) depicts the Virgin Mary cradling the infant Jesus, surrounded by Saint Joseph and other saints,oking devotion and familial intimacy. Brebiette, a French Mannerist artist active in the early 17 century, favored elongated figures and graceful compositions influenced by Italian masters like Parmigianino, blending elegance with spiritual depth. Etching, Brebiette's chosen medium, was a revolutionary printmaking technique at the time, using aci...
About the Artist
Pierre Brebiette · 1598–1642
Pierre Brébiette (c. 1598–c. 1642) was a French painter and etcher whose elegant, sensuous treatment of classical mythology and allegory earned him a significant reputation in early seventeenth-century Paris. Born in Mantes-sur-Seine, Brébiette traveled to Italy as a young man and lived and worked in Rome from around 1617 to approximately 1625, absorbing the influences of ancient sculpture, Renais...