c. 1508

The Holy Family

Netherlandish (active Leiden), c. 1494 - 1533

This print shows Joseph, Mary, and the infant Christ on their return from Egypt, at rest underneath a sheltering grove of trees. Like many artists before and after him, Lucas van Leyden presents a biblical subject in a setting filled with familiar local architecture and plants, and with the protagonists dressed in contemporary clothes. Such recognizable elements fostered a direct interaction between the early sixteenth-century viewer and the intimate narrative depicted.