Holy Family with Saints

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 acid to bite intricate lines into a metal plate for precise, expressive detail. This allowed artists like him to produce affordable multiples of religious scenes, making sacred imagery accessible beyond elite patrons. Popular in Counter-Reformation Europe, such works served as aids for private prayer and meditation. Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department—thanks to a 1959 gift from Harry G. Friedman—this delicate piece exemplifies the era's fusion of artistry and piety, inviting visitors to ponder its quiet grace amid the grand narratives of Baroque art.

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...