The Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth, the Infant John the Baptist and a Dove (after Rubens)
after Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen 1577 - Antwerp 1640)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1630 - 1699
Materials
Oil on panel
Measurements
610 x 610 mm (24 x 24 in)
Place of origin
Flanders (Belgium from 1830)
Order this imageCollection
Scotney Castle, Kent
NT 792035
Summary
Oil painting on panel, The Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth, the Infant John the Baptist and a Dove (after Rubens), after Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen 1577 – Antwerp 1640). The Virgin, seated in red in the centre of the picture, holds the Christ Child half-standing on her lap, holding a dove that he is withholding from Saint John, who is advancing from the left to snatch it. Saint Joseph, in black with a brown cloak, leans over from the left behind the Virgin, whilst John's mother Saint Elizabeth, dressed in an orange-brown cloak and white kerchief leans over the Virgin from the right, with her right arm over her right shoulder, and supporting her left hand on a plinth. This is a copy of an early work by Rubens, painted around 1609, and is now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Another version, closer in size to the Scotney picture is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Provenance
Accepted by HM Treasury in lieu of inheritance tax and transferred to the National Trust under the terms of the will of Mrs Christopher Hussey (1907-2006)
Credit line
Scotney Castle, The Hussey Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
after Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen 1577 - Antwerp 1640), artist