Artwork · 17th century · Jusepe de Ribera

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The Holy Family with Saints Anne and Catherine of Alexandria

Jusepe de Ribera1648Oil on canvas209.6 × 154.3 cm

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At a glance

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The young Saint Catherine kneels and kisses the hand of the Christ Child on Mary's lap, while his grandmother Saint Anne and Joseph look on from the shadows.
Jusepe de Ribera, a Spanish-born painter who worked in Naples, Italy, painted it in 1648.
Out of deep darkness, blue, gold, and red fabrics and the baby's pale skin step forward into the light.

Reading the picture

5 places to look closer

Tap a number on the painting to jump to its note, or a close-up to see that spot in the whole picture.

Zoom in on the old woman's hands at the upper left. Anne, Mary's mother, holds a single pink rose in one hand. With the other she supports a shallow basket of peaches and dark grapes.
Look into the shadows at the upper right. Bearded Joseph, in a brown robe, holds his hands together and looks out toward us. He stands at the very back of the family, watching quietly.
Zoom in on the center. Catherine lowers her eyes and presses her lips to the baby's small hand. She holds it carefully in one of hers. The baby stretches out his arm, but he is looking somewhere else.
Zoom in on the stone block on the right, under Mary. In small letters you can read Jusepe de Ribera españ. Even while working in Naples, Ribera often added the word for Spanish beside his name.
Look at the lower right corner. A tightly woven straw basket holds crumpled orange and white cloths. Gray shadows sit in every fold of the white cloth, so it looks soft enough to touch.

When it was painted

In 1648 Ribera was fifty-seven. Born near Valencia in Spain, he had crossed to Italy as a young man and settled in Naples in 1616. More than thirty years later he was still there, and the Neapolitans still called him Lo Spagnoletto, the little Spaniard.

Naples was then ruled by viceroys sent by the king of Spain. In the year he arrived, Ribera married Caterina Azzolino, the daughter of a local painter. Spanish officials and the Church became his great patrons, and he made his name with pictures that set hard light against deep darkness, in the manner of Caravaggio.

Then, in 1647, the city exploded. Angry at a new tax on fruit, crowds rose up behind a young fisherman known as Masaniello. The next year Don Juan José of Austria, a son of the Spanish king, put the revolt down. In that same year, 1648, Ribera painted him on horseback with the Bay of Naples behind him.

In the middle of all this unrest, Ribera signed this canvas with care. Along with his name, he added that he was Spanish, that he belonged to the academy of artists in Rome, and the date, 1648. He died in Naples four years later, in 1652.

The painting later hung in a collection in Genoa. It passed through the hands of the Paris dealer Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun and then to the Baring family in England. From 1921 it belonged to Viscount Lascelles, later Earl of Harewood, and the Metropolitan Museum bought it in 1934.

Look again at the floor of the painting. Mary's blue robe spreads calmly over the neat brick tiles. None of the noise of the streets gets into this room.

The painter

Jusepe de Ribera

1591–1652

When painting this, the artist was about 57 years old

All paintings by Jusepe de Ribera →

The Holy Family with Saints Anne and Catherine of Alexandria

Questions to think about

Look for itUnder Mary's hand, can you find the white cloth wrapped around the baby?
Why?Why do you think Ribera placed Joseph at the very back, half hidden in the dark?
What about you?Here a grandmother, a mother, and a baby are all in one room. When does your own family gather like this today, and what does each person's face look like when you do?

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