Nicolas Poussin the Holy Family on the Steps Analysis

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The Holy Family on the Steps

The Holy Family on the Steps

1648

Office of a set. See all set records

Oil on canvass

Framed: 103.five x 135.iii ten 13.iii cm (40 iii/4 x 53 1/4 x v 1/4 in.); Unframed: 73.3 x 105.eight cm (28 7/8 x 41 5/eight in.); Onetime: 72.iii ten 104 cm (28 seven/16 x 40 15/16 in.)

Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1981.18

Location

Did y'all know?

Poussin placed small wax models in a box pierced with holes to study lighting furnishings.

Description

This deceptively unproblematic limerick represents a circuitous meditation on the Holy Family's role in the redemption of humanity. At the center, Mary presents the Christ Kid to the world. At the left, Saint Elizabeth leans forrad to foretell his eventual death, while her son, Saint John the Baptist, offers Jesus an apple tree, signifying humanity'south fall from grace in the Garden of Eden. At the right, Saint Joseph holds a compass, a sign of his occupation as a carpenter and besides symbolic of God the Father. Poussin developed his limerick meticulously and deliberately, using clear master colors, uncomplicated forms, and a geometric organization to express the central importance of the Holy Family in Christian conventionalities.

Provenance

Painted for Pierre Hennequin de Fresne (or version in Washington); [perhaps Reynière coll., Paris auction 1793; London sales 1797, 1801]; Lord Ashburton; J. Hervig-Smith, Devon (London auction 1908); (Quinto, Paris); Henri Lerolle (Paris sale 1944, as attributed); Bertin-Mourot coll.

Citations

Cleveland Museum of Art, "Poussin Painting Acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art," Apr thirty, 1981, Cleveland Museum of Art Athenaeum. annal.org

Edgeless, Anthony. Nicolas Poussin. London: Pallas Athene, 1995. Mentioned: p. 659

Minor, Vernon Hyde. Baroque & Rococo: Art & Civilisation. New York, NY: Harry North. Abrams, 1999. Reproduced: p. 187, no. 5.24

Perry, Gillian, and Colin Cunningham. Academies, Museums, and Canons of Art. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press in association with the Open University, 1999. Reproduced: p. 38, pl. 16

Cornette, Joël, and Alain Mérot. Le XVIIe siècle. Paris, France: Seuil, 1999. Reproduced: p. 337

Kendall, Richard. Fatigued to Painting: Leon Kossoff Drawings and Prints After Nicolas Poussin. London, U.k.: Merrell Publishers, 2000. Reproduced: p. 117, pl. 58

Armstrong, John. The Intimate Philosophy of Fine art. London, Great britain: Allen Lane, 2000. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 108-109, no. 23

Bonfait, Olivier, and Neil MacGregor. Il Dio nascosto: i grandi maestri del Seicento e l'immagine di Dio. Roma, Italian republic: Edizioni de Luca, 2000. Reproduced: p. sixteen, fig. 1

Wilson, Carolyn C. St. Joseph in Italian Renaissance Society and Fine art: New Directions and Interpretations. Philadelphia, PA: Saint Joseph's University Printing, 2001. Reproduced: p. 145, pl. fifty, XI

Rosenberg, Pierre, and Jean-Pierre Caillet. La peinture française. Paris, France: Mengès, 2001. Reproduced: p. 274

May, Emerge Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Reproduced: p. 40, no. 37; Mentioned: p. 117

Brugerolles, Emmanuelle and David Guillet. Poussin, Claude, and Their World: Seventeenth-Century French Drawings from the École Des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Paris, France: École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, 2002. Reproduced: fig. 4

Bishop, Philip E. Adventures in the Man Spirit. Upper Saddle River, NJ.: Prentice Hall, 2002. Reproduced: p. 282, fig. ten.28

Marshall, David Ryley. The Italians in Australia: Studies in Renaissance and Bizarre Fine art. Firenze, Italia: Centro Di, 2004. Reproduced: p. 22, fig. 10

Hyman, John. Realism and Relativism in the Theory of Art. Oxford, United kingdom: Aristotelian Social club, 2005. Reproduced: fir. 4

Honor, Hugh, and John Fleming. A World History of Art. London, Britain: Laurence Male monarch, 2005. Reproduced: p. 586, fig. 13.26

Hyman, John. The Objective Eye: Color, Form, and Reality in the Theory of Fine art. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Reproduced: p. 193, fig. 69

Eitel-Porter, Rhoda. From Leonardo to Pollock: Master Drawings from the Morgan Library. New York, NY: Pierpont Morgan Library, 2006. Reproduced: p. 150, fig. one

Iacono, Margaret. Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. New York, NY: The Frick Drove, 2006. Mentioned: p. 60-63; Reproduced: no. 12

Shepherd, Rupert, and Robert Maniura. Presence: The Inherence of the Prototype Inside Images and Other Objects. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2006. Reproduced: p. 131, fig. 7.1

Wright, Christopher. Poussin: Paintings : a Catalogue Raisonné. London, United kingdom: Chaucer Printing, 2007. Reproduced: p. 192, no. 140

Conisbee, Philip, Richard Rand, and Joseph Baillio. French Paintings of the Fifteenth Through the Eighteenth Century. Washington DC: National Gallery of Art, 2009. Reproduced: p. 390, fig. 1

Hershkovitch, Corinne, and Didier Rykner. La restitution des œuvres d'art: solutions et impasses. Paris, France: Hazan, 2011. Mentioned: p. 136; Reproduced: p. 218, fig. 13

Treasures of the Cleveland Museum of Art. London, Great britain; Scala Books, 2012. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 200-2001

Blanc, Marianne Cojannot-Le. À la recherche du rameau d'or. [Place of publication not identified]: Presses universitaires de Paris Ouest, 2012. Reproduced: p. 125, fig. 31

Brugerolles, Emmanuelle. De Poussin à Fragonard: hommage à Mathias Polakovits. Paris, French republic: Beaux-arts de Paris, 2013. Reproduced: p. 57, fig. iii

Cuzin, Jean-Pierre, et. al. Le Saint Joseph charpentier de Georges de la Bout: Un Don au Louvre de Percy Moore Turner. [Gent] : Snoeck, 2017. Mentioned;. p. 179 & 477, n. 2053

Gauzi, Christine. "Poussin au Louvre: L'Etat de Grace." L'Estampille/50'Objet d'fine art 512 (Mai 2015): 36-45. Reproduced: p. 36

Bishop, Brian Leslie and David Hoyle. The Continuing Dialogue: An Investigation into the Artistic Afterlife of the 5 Narratives Peculiar to the Fourth Gospel and an Cess of their Contribution to the Hermeneutics of that Gospel. Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2017. Reproduced: p. 104, fig. 27

Vivid, Virginia. Italian, Spanish, and French Paintings in the Ringling Museum of Art. New York; Sarasota, FL: Scala Arts Publishers, Inc., in association with The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art,, 2017. Mentioned: p. 449

Sapir, Itay. "Flowing Vino, solid Stone: Dionysian and Apollonian Metaphors in Writing on Seventeenth-Century Art." In Einfluss, Strömung, Quelle: Aquatische Metaphern der Kunstgeschichte.Bielefeld: Transcript, 2018. Reproduced: p. 201, fig. ane

Pierini, Marco, and Perugino. Perugino: 50'Adorazione dei Magi. 2018. Reproduced and mentioned; p. 44, Fig. 4

Burchard, Wolf. The Sovereign Artist: Charles Le Brun and the Image of Louis Fourteen. London: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2016. p. 230 Reproduced: p. 230, fig. 190

Gady, Bénédicte, and Nicolas Milovanovic. Charles Le Brun (1619-1690). Lens: Musée du Louvre-Lens; Paris: LIENART, 2016. Reproduced: P. 186, fig. 1

Milovanovic, Nicolas and Mickaël Szanto. Poussin et Dieu: fifty'anthology de l'exposition. Paris: Hazan: Musée du Louvre, 2015. Reproduced: P. 14-fifteen

Buser, Thomas. Experiencing Fine art Around Us. Commonwealth of australia ; United States : Thomson Wadsworth, 2006. Reproduced and mentioned: p, 103, figure 4-26

Wilson, Carolyn C."Nunc faber alter adest: Cristoforo Bianchi's Emblematic Engraving from 1597 and the Saint Joseph Altarpiece of 1603 by Giovanni Barbiani of Ravenna." Artibus et historiae 80, (2019): 241-268. Reproduced: p. 252-53, fig.13a-b; Mentioned: p. 253-54

Hall, Marcia B. The Power of Colour: Five Centuries of European Painting. New Haven: Yale Academy Printing, 2019. Reproduced: p. 132, fig. 3.26

Verdi, Richard, and Nicolas Poussin. Poussin Equally a Painter: From Classicism to Abstraction. London : Reaktion Books, 2020. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 120-123, no. 103

Thomas, Troy Chiliad. Poussin's Women: Sex and Gender in the Creative person's Works. Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, 2020. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 327-328, fig. 7.14

Albl, Stefan, and Pietro Testa. Pietro Testa: Maler in Rom und Lucca (1612-1650). 2021. Mentioned: p. 117, note 180

Exhibition history

A Painting in Focus: Nicolas Poussin's Holy Family on the Steps. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November, 14, 1999-January 23, 2000).

The Year in Review for 1981. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).

A Painting in Focus: Nicolas Poussin'southward Holy Family on the Steps. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 14, 1999-January 23, 2000).

long-term loan. Musée du Louvre (organizer) (February 1, 2000-January 31, 2002).

Poussin and 17th century French Painting. Harvard University Art Museums/Fogg Art Museum (February eleven-April 14, 2002).

Masterpieces of European Painting from The Cleveland Museum of Fine art. Frick Collection, New York, NY (organizer) (November 8, 2006-January 28, 2007).

Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, Beachwood, OH (March 29-July 8, 2007).

Poussin and God. Musée du Louvre, Paris, France (organizer) (March 30-June 29, 2015).

Cite this page

{{cite web|championship=The Holy Family on the Steps|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1981.18|author=Nicolas Poussin|year=1648|access-appointment=03 March 2022|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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