Terms and conditions of use
The Holy Family
(c. 1545-1546)
Medium
oil on wood panel
Measurements
101.0 × 74.4 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1966
Gallery location
16th & 17th Century Gallery - Painting and Sculpture
Mezzanine linked to Level 1, NGV International
About this work
Born and trained in Florence, Perino Del Vaga also travelled to Rome where he studied Classical and contemporary art. This Holy Family exhibits the hallmarks of his mature style: a refined, classicising and graceful elegance, inherited from Raphael, blended with a taste for complex compositions, derived from Michelangelo. Perino’s fine draughtsmanship is evident here and close inspection reveals hundreds of tiny dots that were used to transfer a drawing to the panel. Holes were punched into the paper along the drawn lines, and once laid on the support the paper was pounded with a bag of charcoal, leaving a clear composition ready for painting, a technique called “pouncing”.
Artwork Details
Accession Number
1666-5
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Human Figures Religion and Mythology
Subjects (specific)
Blessed Virgin Mary (Christian character) families (kinship groups) Holy Family (Christian theme) Jesus Christ (Christian character) Joseph, Saint (Christian character)
Provenance
Collection of Don Carlos Alves de Souza Junior, Brazilian Ambassador to Rome 1950–56, Paris 1963, England 1964–66, before 1964; included in the sale of Important Old Master Paintings of various properties, Sotheby’s London, 2 December 1964, no. 7; from where purchased by Julius Weitzner (dealer), London and New York; with Weitzner, London and New York, until 1966; with Hazlitt Gallery (dealer), London, by 1966; from where purchased, on the advice of Mary Woodall, for the Felton Bequest, 1966.