03 — ARTWORK
Holy Family
PROCACCINI, Giulio Cesare · 1620 →
- MEDIUM
- Oil on panel, 145 x 93 cm
- TYPE
- Religious
PALETTE
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THIS REPRODUCTION
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CURRENT LOCATION · Statens Museum for Kunst
- FILE
- 1000 × 1553 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
The Virgin leans gently towards her son to prop him up, as Joseph behind them, observes his family. As the saviour of humanity and new Adam, Jesus is clutching an apple, whereas Mary is holding a nosegay with lilies, the symbol of purity.
From a compositional standpoint, this panelTerm in painting for a support of wood, metal, or other rigid substance, as distinct from canvas. Until the adoption of canvas in the 15th century nearly all the movable paintings of Europe were executed on wood, and even up to the beginning of the 17th century it is probable that as much painting was done on the one support as on the other. Painters who worked on a small scale often used copper panels (Elsheimer is a leading example), and in the colonial art of South America copper and tin and even lead and zinc were used. On a larger scale, slate has occasionally been used as a support, notably by Rubens for his altarpiece for Sta Maria in Vallicella (the Chiesa Nuova) in Rome; the picture he originally painted was said to reflect the light unpleasantly and slate was used for the replacement to produce a more matt finish. For wood panels the Italian masters of the Renaissance preferred white poplar, while oak was the most common wood used in northern Europe. Many other types were used, however; analysis of the contents of art galleries has yielded a long list, including beech, cedar, chestnut, fir, larch, linden, mahogany, olive, and walnut. In the 20th century cedar, teak, and dark walnut are favourites, and modern painters have also used plywood, fibre-board, and other synthetic materials as supports. evokes other variations of this theme that Procaccini painted around the 1620s. In these works the figures occupy a compressed space and emerge from the darkness with great plastic force.
OTHER WORKS BY GIULIO CESARE PROCACCINI
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-r461a47b2147c3f,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Holy Family by PROCACCINI, Giulio Cesare},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/procaccini-giulio-cesare-r6f82f19f5cfb2d/holy-family-r461a47b2147c3f},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.