The Holy Family with Saint Mary Magdalen
ca. 1495–1500
Medium
Distemper on canvas
Dimensions
22 1/2 x 18 in. (57.2 x 45.7 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913
Accession Number
14.40.643
Tags
Art Historical Context
Andrea Mantegna's *The Holy Family with Saint Magdalen*, created around 1495–1500, is a tender devotional painting that captures the intimate serenity of the Christ Child, the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, and Mary Magdalene. Rendered in distemper on canvas—a water-based medium akin to fresco that yields a matte, luminous finish—this small-scale work (22½ × 18 inches) was likely intended for private worship in a Renaissance home or chapel. Mantegna, a pioneering Italian artist from Padua, masterfully blends early Renaissance precision with classical influences, evident in the figures' dignified p...
About the Artist
Andrea Mantegna · 1431–1506
Andrea Mantegna was born around 1431 near Padua, in the Venetian Republic, the son of a carpenter. At approximately age eleven he was taken into the workshop of the Paduan painter and antiquities collector Francesco Squarcione, who enrolled him as a guild member and immersed him in the study of Roman sculpture and classical Latin. Though Mantegna later claimed that Squarcione had exploited his lab...