Spanish school; end of the XVII century.

Spanish school; late seventeenth century.
"Holy Family".
Oil on panel.
Presents restorations.
It has frame of the twentieth century, following ancient models.
Measurements: 57 x 47 cm; 76 x 74 cm (frame).
In this work the artist has made the representation of the Holy Family, following the modes of the time. Through the use of a pyramidal composition in which all the characters are inscribed, the author gives greater prominence to the figure of the Child. He is placed in the center of the composition next to his mother on whom he leans in a natural and everyday way, holding a bird in his hands. In the background, the figure of St. Joseph observes the scene.
In the most common sense of the expression, the Holy Family includes the closest relatives of the Child Jesus, that is, mother and grandmother or mother and nurturing father. In both cases, whether it is St. Anne or St. Joseph who appears, it is a group of three figures. From the artistic point of view, the arrangement of this terrestrial Trinity poses the same problems and suggests the same solutions as the heavenly Trinity. However, the difficulties are fewer. It is no longer a question of a single God in three persons whose essential unity must be expressed at the same time as diversity. The three personages are united by a blood bond, certainly, but they do not constitute an indivisible block. Moreover, the three are represented in human form, while the dove of the Holy Spirit introduces into the divine Trinity a zoomorphic element that is difficult to amalgamate with two anthropomorphic figures. On the other hand, this iconography was traditionally, until the Counter-Reformation, a representation of the Virgin and Child to which the figure of St. Joseph was added in the foreground. It was not until the reforms of Trent when St. Joseph began to take center stage as protector and guide of the Infant Jesus.