The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Margaret
c. 1488–93
Medium
tempera and oil on wood
Dimensions
diam. 153 cm · framed: 184 × 186 × 9.5 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Medieval Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
The Delia E. Holden Fund and a fund donated as a memorial to Mrs. Holden by her children: Guerdon S. Holden, Delia Holden White, Roberta Holden Bole, Emery Holden Greenough, Gertrude Holden McGinley
Accession Number
1932.227
Tags
About this artwork
Lippi’s sophisticated composition gracefully overlaps five figures in a round format. Oliviero Carafa, Cardinal of Naples, commissioned this work, although Lippi probably painted it in Rome while working for the cardinal’s family, an example of the widespread taste across Italy for the art of Florence. Meticulously detailed still-life elements on the parapet, thick with symbolic meaning, reflect Lippi’s interest in northern European painting he would have seen in Florence. Likewise the classical...