The Infants Jesus Christ and Saint John the Baptist Embracing
1520–25
Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
74.7 × 57.6 cm (29 7/16 × 22 11/16 in.); Framed: 87 × 70.9 × 6.4 cm (34 1/4 × 27 7/8 × 2 1/2 in.)
Classification
oil on panel
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
48532
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Joos van Cleve sold many versions of this painting to an international clientele eager for luxury goods. To suit the taste of his customers, Van Cleve learned to adapt the ideal forms of the Italian Renaissance to a Northern European context. Here, the poses and modeling of the intertwined children are indebted to the Italian painter Leonardo da Vinci, while the elaborate metalwork accents and costly materials comprising the architec- ture are characteristic of Northern European art. This partic...