The Small Holy Family (c. 1518–1519) is an oil-on-panel painting by

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...

and assistants, now in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

in Paris. Its name distinguishes it from his Great Holy Family, also in the Louvre. It is signed and dated "RAPHAEL VRBINAS S ntiPINGEBAT MDXVIII" on the hem of the Madonna's garment. According to the 17th century writer André Félibién two further Louvre works ''Abundance'' and ''Ceres'', both in

monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, monochrom ...

, formed a cover to the ''Small Holy Family''. ''Abundance'' has a signature "Raphael Uvrbinas", though this is usually considered a later addition. It may relate to

cardinal Bibbiena Bernardo Dovizi of Bibbiena (4 August 1470 – 9 November 1520) was an Italian cardinal and comedy writer, known best as Cardinal Bibbiena, for the town of Bibbiena, where he was born. Biography He received a substantial literary training, ...

, whose surname was "Dovizi (i.e. Abundance). It is a rare survival of a painting for so small a painting. It shows a figure in a niche on a base between marble mirrors, with a mask under the base, referring to an ''Aphrodite'' ( Kunsthistorisches Museum) originally in the Loggia dei Marmi in the Palazzo Ducale di Mantova. The work and its cover may have been commissioned from Raphael around 1519 by

Pope Leo X Pope Leo X ( it, Leone X; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521. Born into the prominent political an ...

as thanks for the services of Adrien Gouffier de Boissy, papal legate to France. de Boissy also owned ''John the Baptist as a Young Man in the Desert'' (Louvre), another work by Raphael and assistants, as well as a preparatory drawing for the ''Small Holy Family'' now in the Royal Collection at

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

. In 1622 it was recorded in the collection of the Count of Brienne, who then left it to

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

. Elizabeth's face and the cradle in the shape of an inverted tree trunk are reminiscent of other works by Raphael from that era such as '' Holy Family under an Oak Tree'' (

Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

) and '' La Perla'' (Prado), both with assistance from

Giulio Romano Giulio Romano (, ; – 1 November 1546), is the acquired name of Giulio Pippi, who was an Italian painter and architect. He was a pupil of Raphael, and his stylistic deviations from High Renaissance classicism help define the sixteenth-cent ...

. The background landscape is influenced by the Danubian School.

References

{{Authority control Paintings of the Madonna and Child by Raphael Paintings by Giulio Romano 1519 paintings Paintings of Elizabeth (biblical figure) Paintings in the Louvre by Italian artists Paintings depicting John the Baptist