On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P00296
- Author
- Raphael (Italian)
- Title
- The Holy Family with a Lamb
- Chronology
- 1507
- Technique
- Support
- Measures
- 29 cm x 21 cm
- School
- Theme
- Shown
- Yes
- Entrance
- COLECCIONREAL
- Procedence
- Royal Collection
The Virgin Mary helps the Christ
Child to mount a lamb. Leaning on
his staff, Saint Joseph looks on.
The scene is set in an idyllic
landscape with a church, a castle
tower and some houses in the
background. In Christian symbolism,
the Lamb refers to Christ's
Passion.
The three years Raphael spent in
Florence allowed him to deepen his
knowledge of Leonardo da Vinci's
artworks, which he absorbed and
interpreted in a personal way. The
present work is an example of this,
as it is inspired by Leonardo's
drawing for the main altarpiece of
the church of Santa Annunziata in
Florence. But the relations between
the characters and the dynamism of
their gestures and gazes, which
interrelates them, is the
unquestionable mark of Raphael in
the context of a classical style of
serene beauty.
A preparatory drawing by Raphael
for this painting is now in the
Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. The
present work entered the Royal
Collection in the late eighteenth
century, when Carlos IV (1748-1819)
bought it from the Falconieri
Collection in Rome. After hanging
in the Monastery of El Escorial, it
entered the Prado Museum in
1837.
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