Holy Family
Author: Unknown
Date: 17th century
Material: Polychromed gesso on wood
Dimensions (cm): H 253 x W 135
Provenance: Guimarães, church of the Convento de Santa Clara
Inventory No.: MAS E 9
The Holy Family walks holding their hands and above them there’s a dove. Their clothes are decorated with floral motifs.
This representation is probably based on the biblical episode of the disappearing of the Child Jesus for three days, mentioned by Saint Luke (Luke, 2, 41 – 51): “Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group they went a day’s journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, ‘Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.’ And he said to them, ‘Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.”
This scene, which ends the cycle of the Infancy and which may be considered Jesus’s first Preaching, is the transition between his hidden life and his public life.
This panel and the one of the Baptism of Christ (MAS E 10) once decorated the walls of the crossing arch outside the chancel of the church of the Convento de Santa Clara.