# Holy Family [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [BANDINELLI, Baccio]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Pen and brown ink, 332 x 210 mm ## Commentary The Florentine sculptor Baccio Bandinelli produced a number of pen and ink studies on the theme of the Holy Family \(the Virgin Mary, St Joseph, and the Christ Child\), all drawn with his typically incisive clarity of contour and orderly hatching. However, the reclining Classical-style female figure with one bare breast \(at centre\) is not easily reconciled with traditional portrayals of the Virgin Mary. Rather, the arrangement of the figures in the present drawing may be inspired on the many variations of pose seen in the family groups among the <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/m/michelan/3sistina/6lunette/lunettes.html'\)" href="/html/m/michelan/3sistina/6lunette/lunettes.html">Ancestors of Christ in Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling</a> frescoes \(1508-12\). As a draughtsman, Bandinelli derived some of his techniques from Michelangelo as well as Rosso Fiorentino. ## Related artworks - [Adam and Eve]() - [Alessandro de'Medici]() - [Andrea Doria as Neptune]() - [Apollo]() - [Balustrade in the choir \(detail\)]() - [Birth of the Virgin]() - [Bust of Cosimo I de' Medici]() - [Bust of Cosimo I de' Medici]() - [Bust of Cosimo I]() - [Christ Tended by an Angel]() - [Cosimo I de' Medici, Duke of Florence \(detail\)]() - [Cosimo I de' Medici, Duke of Florence]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()