# Holy Family [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [EVERDINGEN, Caesar van]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 129 x 105 cm ## Commentary Holy Family c. 1660 Oil on canvas, 129 x 105 cm Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht In this painting Van Everdingen envisaged and achieved a monumental and majestic effect. The Virgin is seated broadly and holds the half-naked infant on her lap. Mother and child are portrayed 'en face', and both gaze intently in our direction. Joseph on the left is eclipsed by the two protagonists. He sits at an angle facing them, on a seat lower than the Virgin's. He looks up and focuses on a point somewhere outside the picture, as if reflecting on the words he has just read in the open book on his lap. He holds his reading glasses absent-mindedly and is clearly lost in thought. The portrayal of Joseph as a young and vigorous man, in contrast to the traditional elderly figure, is in line with the dictates of Counter-Reformationist principles. ## Related artworks - [Allegory of the Birth of Frederik Hendrik]() - [Amor Holding a Glass Orb]() - [Bacchus with Nymphs and Cupid]() - [Count Willem II of Holland Granting Privileges]() - [Diogenes Seeks a True Man]() - [Four Muses and Pegasus on Parnassus]() - [Jupiter and Callisto]() - [Lycurgus Demonstrates the Benefits of Education]() - [Nymphs Offering the Young Bacchus Wine, Fruit and Flowers]() - [Officers and Standard-Bearers of the Old Civic Guard]() - [Portrait of a Girl as a Huntress]() - [Portrait of a Two-Year-Old Boy]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()