The Holy Family of Francis I (Raphael)

Painted by Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, but better known as Raphael.  His contemporaries were Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, recognized as the “trinity”. (wonder if there was an competitiveness between them??)

The Holy Family

The Holy Family is a 1518 oil painting of Saint Elisabeth (as in Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin, who was beyond child-bearing age. Her husband was told by an angel in a vision that they would have a son and should name him John. When he doubted this, he was struck dumb). The chubby boy is of course John the Baptist.)
It is signed by Raphael, but most of the work was delegated to his workshop assistants. Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop, so a lot of his work wasn’t necessarily done by him but could have been done by his assistants.

It was commissioned by Pope Leo X as a gift to Claude, wife of Francis I of France, hence its name. It is now apparently in the Louvre. …I looked on line for it there but couldn’t find it. I guess I’ll have to go to the Louvre to see if it’s actually there.