  About the Artwork
  
  
  While the subject is drawn from the Christian tradition, this image of the Holy Family is notable for its universality. Mary cradles the infant Jesus on her lap as her husband Joseph sits peacefully in the background; the tangible, emotional ties that run between mother and child, and between the two parents, might be seen anywhere. Born in northern France, Nicolas Poussin worked most of his life in Rome, where paintings such as this were appreciated by a circle of distinguished art lovers and intellectuals. The Holy Family exerted a strong influence on successive generations of artists. In the mid-eighteenth century, it was copied by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, whose exuberant, romantic paintings, very different from those of Poussin, are also represented in the Detroit Institute of Arts.
  
  
  Title
  The Holy Family
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1641
  
  Artist
  Nicolas Poussin
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1594-1665
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  French
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Oil on canvas
  
  
  Dimensions
  Unframed: 28 × 22 1/8 inches (71.1 × 56.2 cm)
  Framed: 34 × 28 × 2 1/2 inches (86.4 × 71.1 × 6.4 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  European Painting
  
  
  Credit
  Gift of Mr. and Mrs. A. D. Wilkinson
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  54.2
  
  
  Copyright
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