The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 26, 2024

The Holy Family on the Steps

The Holy Family on the Steps

1648
(French, 1594–1665)
Framed: 103.5 x 135.3 x 13.3 cm (40 3/4 x 53 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.); Unframed: 73.3 x 105.8 cm (28 7/8 x 41 5/8 in.); Former: 72.3 x 104 cm (28 7/16 x 40 15/16 in.)

Did You Know?

Poussin placed small wax models in a box pierced with holes to study lighting effects.

Description

This deceptively simple composition represents a complex meditation on the Holy Family’s role in the redemption of humanity. At the center, Mary presents the Christ child to the world. At the left, Saint Elizabeth leans forward to foretell his eventual death, while her son, Saint John the Baptist, offers Jesus an apple, signifying humanity’s fall from grace in the Garden of Eden. At the right, Saint Joseph holds a compass, a sign of his occupation as a carpenter and also symbolic of God the Father. Poussin developed his composition meticulously and deliberately, using clear primary colors, simple forms, and a geometric organization to express the central importance of the Holy Family in Christian belief.
  • Painted for Pierre Hennequin de Fresne (or version in Washington); [perhaps Reynière coll., Paris sale 1793; London sales 1797, 1801]; Lord Ashburton; J. Hervig-Smith, Devon (London sale 1908); (Quinto, Paris); Henri Lerolle (Paris sale 1944, as attributed); Bertin-Mourot coll.
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, “Poussin Painting Acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art,” April 30, 1981, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Blunt, Anthony. Nicolas Poussin. London: Pallas Athene, 1995. Mentioned: p. 659
    Cornette, Joël, and Alain Mérot. Le XVIIe siècle. Paris, France: Seuil, 1999. Reproduced: p. 337
    Perry, Gillian, and Colin Cunningham. Academies, Museums, and Canons of Art. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press in association with the Open University, 1999. Reproduced: p. 38, pl. 16
    Minor, Vernon Hyde. Baroque & Rococo: Art & Culture. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, 1999. Reproduced: p. 187, no. 5.24
    De Grazia, Dianne, "Poussin’s Holy Family", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 39 no. 10, December 1999 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 4 archive.org
    Bonfait, Olivier, and Neil MacGregor. Il Dio nascosto: i grandi maestri del Seicento e l'immagine di Dio. Roma, Italy: Edizioni de Luca, 2000. Reproduced: p. 16, fig. 1
    Armstrong, John. The Intimate Philosophy of Art. London, United Kingdom: Allen Lane, 2000. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 108-109, no. 23
    Kendall, Richard. Drawn to Painting: Leon Kossoff Drawings and Prints After Nicolas Poussin. London, United Kingdom: Merrell Publishers, 2000. Reproduced: p. 117, pl. 58
    May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Reproduced: p. 40, no. 37; Mentioned: p. 117
    Wilson, Carolyn C. St. Joseph in Italian Renaissance Society and Art: New Directions and Interpretations. Philadelphia, PA: Saint Joseph's University Press, 2001. Reproduced: p. 145, pl. 50, XI
    Rosenberg, Pierre, and Jean-Pierre Caillet. La peinture française. Paris, France: Mengès, 2001. Reproduced: p. 274
    Bishop, Philip E. Adventures in the Human Spirit. Upper Saddle River, NJ.: Prentice Hall, 2002. Reproduced: p. 282, fig. 10.28
    Brugerolles, Emmanuelle and David Guillet. Poussin, Claude, and Their World: Seventeenth-Century French Drawings from the École Des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Paris, France: École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, 2002. Reproduced: fig. 4
    Marshall, David Ryley. The Italians in Australia: Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Art. Firenze, Italy: Centro Di, 2004. Reproduced: p. 22, fig. 10
    Hyman, John. Realism and Relativism in the Theory of Art. Oxford, United Kingdom: Aristotelian Society, 2005. Reproduced: fir. 4
    Honour, Hugh, and John Fleming. A World History of Art. London, United Kingdom: Laurence King, 2005. Reproduced: p. 586, fig. 13.26
    Shepherd, Rupert, and Robert Maniura. Presence: The Inherence of the Prototype Within Images and Other Objects. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2006. Reproduced: p. 131, fig. 7.1
    Iacono, Margaret. Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. New York, NY: The Frick Collection, 2006. Mentioned: p. 60-63; Reproduced: no. 12
    Eitel-Porter, Rhoda. From Leonardo to Pollock: Master Drawings from the Morgan Library. New York, NY: Pierpont Morgan Library, 2006. Reproduced: p. 150, fig. 1
    Hyman, John. The Objective Eye: Color, Form, and Reality in the Theory of Art. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Reproduced: p. 193, fig. 69 public.eblib.com
    Wright, Christopher. Poussin: Paintings : a Catalogue Raisonné. London, United Kingdom: Chaucer Press, 2007. Reproduced: p. 192, no. 140
    Conisbee, Philip, Richard Rand, and Joseph Baillio. French Paintings of the Fifteenth Through the Eighteenth Century. Washington DC: National Gallery of Art, 2009. Reproduced: p. 390, fig. 1
    Hershkovitch, Corinne, and Didier Rykner. La restitution des œuvres d'art: solutions et impasses. Paris, France: Hazan, 2011. Mentioned: p. 136; Reproduced: p. 218, fig. 13
    Treasures of the Cleveland Museum of Art. London, United Kingdom; Scala Books, 2012. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 200-2001
    Blanc, Marianne Cojannot-Le. À la recherche du rameau d'or. [Place of publication not identified]: Presses universitaires de Paris Ouest, 2012. Reproduced: p. 125, fig. 31 books.openedition.org
    Brugerolles, Emmanuelle. De Poussin à Fragonard: hommage à Mathias Polakovits. Paris, France: Beaux-arts de Paris, 2013. Reproduced: p. 57, fig. 3
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 187
    Cuzin, Jean-Pierre, et. al. Le Saint Joseph charpentier de Georges de la Tour: Un Don au Louvre de Percy Moore Turner. [Gent] : Snoeck, 2017. Mentioned;. p. 179 & 477, n. 2053
    Bandle, Anne Laure, and Frédéric Elsig. Risques et périls dans l'attribution des œuvres d'art: de la pratique des experts aux aspects juridiques. Genève : Schulthess, 2018. Mentioned: pp. 2-3; Reproduced: p. 5, fig. 2
    Gauzi, Christine. "Poussin au Louvre: L'Etat de Grace." L'Estampille/L'Objet d'art 512 (Mai 2015): 36-45. Reproduced: p. 36
    Brilliant, Virginia. Italian, Spanish, and French Paintings in the Ringling Museum of Art. New York; Sarasota, FL: Scala Arts Publishers, Inc., in association with The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art,, 2017. Mentioned: p. 449
    Bishop, Brian Leslie and David Hoyle. The Continuing Dialogue: An Investigation into the Artistic Afterlife of the Five Narratives Peculiar to the Fourth Gospel and an Assessment of their Contribution to the Hermeneutics of that Gospel. Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2017. Reproduced: p. 104, fig. 27
    Sapir, Itay. "Flowing Wine, solid Stone: Dionysian and Apollonian Metaphors in Writing on Seventeenth-Century Art." In Einfluss, Strömung, Quelle: Aquatische Metaphern der Kunstgeschichte.Bielefeld: Transcript, 2018. Reproduced: p. 201, fig. 1
    Pierini, Marco, and Perugino. Perugino: l'Adorazione dei Magi. 2018. Reproduced and mentioned; p. 44, Fig. 4
    Burchard, Wolf. The Sovereign Artist: Charles Le Brun and the Image of Louis XIV. London: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2016. p. 230 Reproduced: p. 230, fig. 190
    Gady, Bénédicte, and Nicolas Milovanovic. Charles Le Brun (1619-1690). Lens: Musée du Louvre-Lens; Paris: LIENART, 2016. Reproduced: P. 186, fig. 1
    Milovanovic, Nicolas and Mickaël Szanto. Poussin et Dieu: l'album de l'exposition. Paris: Hazan: Musée du Louvre, 2015. Reproduced: P. 14-15
    Buser, Thomas. Experiencing Art Around Us. Australia ; United States : Thomson Wadsworth, 2006. Reproduced and mentioned: p, 103, figure 4-26
    Hall, Marcia B. The Power of Color: Five Centuries of European Painting. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019. Reproduced: p. 132, fig. 3.26
    Wilson, Carolyn C."Nunc faber alter adest: Cristoforo Bianchi's Emblematic Engraving from 1597 and the Saint Joseph Altarpiece of 1603 by Giovanni Barbiani of Ravenna." Artibus et historiae 80, (2019): 241-268. Reproduced: p. 252-53, fig.13a-b; Mentioned: p. 253-54
    Verdi, Richard, and Nicolas Poussin. Poussin As a Painter: From Classicism to Abstraction. London : Reaktion Books, 2020. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 120-123, no. 103
    Thomas, Troy M. Poussin's Women: Sex and Gender in the Artist's Works. Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, 2020. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 327-328, fig. 7.14
    Albl, Stefan, and Pietro Testa. Pietro Testa: Maler in Rom und Lucca (1612-1650). 2021. Mentioned: p. 117, note 180
    Caglioti, Francesco, and Donatello. Donatello: The Renaissance. Venezia : Marsilio arte, 2022. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 401, fig. 6
    Lerolle, Aggy. Henry Lerolle: Paris 1848-1929. Willaupuis, Belgium: Wapica; Paris: Société des Amis d'Henry Lerolle, 2022. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 222-223
  • Poussin and God. Musée du Louvre, Paris, France (organizer) (March 30-June 29, 2015).
    Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, Beachwood, OH (March 29-July 8, 2007).
    Masterpieces of European Painting from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Frick Collection, New York, NY (organizer) (November 8, 2006-January 28, 2007).
    Poussin and 17th century French Painting. Harvard University Art Museums/Fogg Art Museum (February 11-April 14, 2002).
    long-term loan. Musée du Louvre (organizer) (February 1, 2000-January 31, 2002).
    A Painting in Focus: Nicolas Poussin's Holy Family on the Steps. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November, 14, 1999-January 23, 2000).
    A Painting in Focus: Nicolas Poussin's Holy Family on the Steps. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 14, 1999-January 23, 2000).
    The Year in Review for 1981. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).
    .
  • {{cite web|title=The Holy Family on the Steps|url=false|author=Nicolas Poussin|year=1648|access-date=26 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1981.18