Zurbarán, Francisco de (1598-1664)
La Sagrada Familia (The Holy Family)
1659
Oil on canvas, 121.5 x 97 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
At the very end of his career, Zurbarán abandoned the tenebroso manner of painting that had characterised his earlier works and adopted a gentler style, filled with gleaming light. This scene radiates a sense of intimate directness, as the painter presents Mary and Joseph as parents caring lovingly for their child. Joseph – thanks to the decrees of the Council of Trent, initiating the Counter Reformation – is no longer portrayed as an old man, but in the full strength of middle age. The figure of Mary, meanwhile, recalls an iconographic type popular since the age of early Christianity, the Nursing Madonna. Although depictions of the Virgin Mary’s breasts were deemed inappropriate by both the Reformation and the Council of Trent, the subject remained popular in Spain as late as the end of the seventeenth century. (MFAB)