The J. Paul Getty Museum

The Holy Family

Object Details

Title:

The Holy Family

Artist/Maker:

Giulio Romano (Giulio Pippi) (Italian, before 1499 - 1546)

Culture:

Italian

Place:

Italy (Place Created)

Date:

about 1520–1523

Medium:

Oil (possibly mixed with tempera) on panel

Object Number:

95.PB.64

Dimensions:

77.5 × 61.9 cm (30 1/2 × 24 3/8 in.)

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Object Description

Giulio Romano set Christ and John the Baptist's first meeting on the day of the traditional Jewish purification ceremony, forty days after John the Baptist's birthday. The meaning of this enigmatic painting is unclear, and it has been known by several titles. At right a woman carries a basket with two turtledoves, the required offering of the poor. After the purification ceremony, at which the priest recognized Christ's destiny, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus visited her cousin Elizabeth and John the Baptist, Elizabeth's son. Precociously, Jesus opens a book, showing that his birth signaled the debut of a new era. The scroll, one of the Baptist's attributes, reads Ecce Agnus Dei(Behold the lamb of God).

As Raphael's most important protégé, Giulio adapted Raphael's late style in the darkly evocative landscape and these tightly interlocked figures and idealized female faces. Features typical of Giulio's work include the metallic palette, muscular figures with heavy features, and lively details such as the dog dashing out the doorway at left and the all'antica landscape at right.

Provenance
Provenance
-

Vincenzo Spinola (Genoa, Italy), sold to Andrew Wilson.

1803

Andrew Wilson, sold to William Waldegrave.

- 1825

William Waldegrave, first baron Radstock, 1753 - 1825 (London, England), upon his death, held in trust by the estate.

1825 - 1826

Estate of William Waldegrave, first baron Radstock, 1753 - 1825 [sold, Radstock sale, Christie's, London, May 13, 1826, lot 47, to George Byng M.P., for £ 934.10.]

1826 - 1847

George Byng M.P., 1764 - 1847 (Wrotham Park, England), by inheritance to his heirs, 1847.

1847 - 1994

Heirs of George Byng M.P., 1764 - 1847 (Wrotham Park, England) [sold, Christie's, London, December 9, 1994, lot 37, to Simon Dickinson, Inc.]

1994 - 1995

Simon Dickinson, Inc. (New York), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1995.

Exhibitions
Exhibitions
Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, and Dutch Masters (1828)
  • British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom (London), 1828
Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, and French Masters (1836)
  • British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom (London), 1836
Roma e lo stile classico di Raffaello 1515-1527 (March 21 to September 5, 1999)
  • Centro Internazionale d'Arte e di Cultura di Palazzo Te (Mantua), March 21 to May 30, 1999
  • Albertina (Vienna), June 23 to September 5, 1999
The Art of Papal Rome (May 29 to September 6, 2009)
  • National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), May 29 to September 6, 2009
Late Raphael (June 12, 2012 to January 14, 2013)
  • Museo del Prado (Madrid), June 12 to September 16, 2012
  • Musée du Louvre (Paris), October 8, 2012 to January 14, 2013
Bibliography
Bibliography

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Buchanan, William. Memoirs of Painting, with a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into England since the French Revolution. 2 vols. (London: R. Ackermann, 1824), vol. 2, p. 196.

Christie's, London. Catalogue of the Very Noble Collection of Italian, French, Flemish, and Dutch Pictures, of the Right Honourable Admiral Lord Radstock, Deceased. May 12-13, 1826, p. 22, lot 47 (May 13).

Catalogue of Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, and Dutch Masters, with which the Proprietors Have Favoured the Institution, exh. cat. (London: William Nicol, with British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom, 1828), p. 14, no. 53.

Catalogue of Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, and French Masters, with which the Proprietors Have Favoured the Institution, exh. cat. (London: W. Clowes and Sons, with British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts, 1836), p. 7, no. 6.

Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of More than Forty Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Mss. [...] Visited in 1854 and 1856, and Now for the First Time Described, A Supplement to Treasures of Art in Great Britain (London: John Murray, 1857), p. 319.

Redford, George. Art Sales: A History of Sales of Pictures and Other Works of Art; With Notices of the Collections Sold, Names of Owners, Titles of Pictures, Prices and Purchasers. 2 vols. (London: Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., 1888), vol. 1, p. 73n(c).

Brigstocke, Hugh. William Buchanan and the 19th Century Art Trade: 100 Letters to His Agents in London and Italy (London: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 1982), pp. 422, 446, 454n3.

Joannides, Paul, and Francis Russell. "Letters: Giulio Romano and Penni." Burlington Magazine 124, no. 955 (October 1982), p. 634.

Russell, Francis. "The Spinola 'Holy Family' of Giulio Romano." Burlington Magazine 124, no. 950 (May 1982), pp. 296-98, fig. 37.

Joannides, Paul. "The Early Easel Paintings of Giulio Romano." Paragone 36, no. 425 (July 1985), pp. 36-37, fig. 27.

Ferino Pagden, Sylvia. "Giulio Romano pittore e disegnatore a Roma." In Giulio Romano, exh. cat. Ernst Gombrich et al., eds. (Mantua: Palazzo Te and Palazzo Ducale, with Electa, 1989), pp. 70-72, 93n47, ill.

Cannatà, Roberto, and Adriano Ghisetti Giavarina. Cola dell'Amatrice (Florence: Cantini Editore, 1991), p. 108, under no. 25.

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Young, Peter, and Paul Joannides. "Giulio Romano's Madonna at Apsley House." Burlington Magazine 137, no. 1112 (November 1995), pp. 728, 733-34, fig. 14.

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"Acquisitions/1995." The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 24 (1996), p. 111, no. 41, ill.

Ganz, Kate. A Catalogue of Drawings, Small Paintings & Oil Sketches, exh. cat. Anne Hargrave, ed. (New York: Jason McCoy, Inc. and Kate Ganz, Ltd., 1996), p. 8, under no. 1.

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