Follower of Jan Cossiers; 18th century

Spanish school, follower of JAN COSSIERS (Antwerp, 1600-1671); 18th century.
"Holy Family".
Oil on canvas.
It has slight flaws in the pictorial surface and flaws in the frame.
Measurements: 102 x 83 cm; 130 x 110 cm (frame).
In the present work we are presented in an intimate way to the Virgin and St. Joseph contemplating the Child. It is a scene of placid and almost idyllic atmosphere with an indeterminate background that gives all the prominence to the divinity of the figures.
The representation and model of the Holy Family has served as an image that reinforces the family portrait and the moral representation of the Christian family. The different variants that have come down to us from the history of art have been due to the political and religious needs of the moment. In the Italian Renaissance period for art, but late medieval in terms of society, the iconography of the Holy Family was based predominantly on the Virgin, Child and St. Anne, especially in the Tuscan area, because the mother of the Virgin was the patron saint of the city of Florence. The figure of St. Joseph, although he is not usually represented in the iconography of this theme, or if he does it is in a more restrained and almost secondary way, it is during the seventeenth century that his figure as earthly father of the Child takes more relevance in the scenes where his paternal and protective role is more palpable and even, sometimes, protagonist. This is due to the thought that the Church throughout history has had about him, whose interest in the figure of St. Joseph was reconsidered as new beliefs were reworked, adding to it the development of bourgeois society.