The Holy Family & Madonna and Child

The portrait of Madonna and Child is based on a painting by Luis de Morales in the National Gallery, London (NG1229), of which he produced several versions in the 1560s. The Virgin, as is traditional, is clothed in a blue mantle and crimson gown, and as she cradles the Infant in her arms, he tucks his hand into her blouse in search of milk. This gesture alludes to her role as a nursing mother, but it does not expose her naked breast in line with the recommendations of the Council of Trent (1545–63), which discouraged artists from depicting situations of gratuitous nudity that might distract viewers from expressions of piety and devotion.

Conversely, the composition by Juan de Juanes depicts Christ with both parents. The horizontal alignment of Mary and Joseph gives them equal importance, which reflects the increasing prominence given to the cult of the latter in sixteenth-century Spain. Traditionally, artists had represented Joseph as a secondary figure, but here Juan de Juanes has produced a graceful, circular configuration, presenting both parents gazing at Christ, who constitutes the principal focus of composition. While the Infant appears to embrace his father with affection, his face is turned outwards to engage the viewer with a serious gaze.

As with paintings typical of the late medieval period, Joseph is characterized as an elderly man with a furrowed brow, grey hair, and darker skin, while the pristine whiteness of the Virgin’s face draws attention to her youth. The purpose of the contrast was to emphasize the divinity of Christ by envisioning Joseph as a man who was too old to have fathered a child of his own. The haloes of Mary and Joseph are formed by discs, which indicate their saintly status, while that of Christ underscores his position as a member of the Trinity.

Both artists have rendered the different fabrics, facial features, and hair of the figures in exquisite detail. The painting from the circle of Morales has been more softly painted than the one by Juanes, which is characterized by its more crisply outlined forms. The placement of isolated half-length figures against a darkened background draws on the work of Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) and Raphael Sanzio (1483–1520). These influences shape the realistic appearance of the figures, reflecting the sixteenth-century emphasis on the Holy Family (or Virgin and Child alone) as an idealized, aspirational unit. Painted in oil on relatively small panels of wood, both compositions were probably intended for private devotion rather than public use.