Home / Artworks / The Holy Family with Mary Magdalen
The Holy Family with Mary Magdalen
El Greco, c. 1590–95
The figures in this painting seem to float. The colours are unexpected and the setting is vague. The Cleveland Museum of Art says that El Greco was more interested in expressing the intense spirituality of the figures than their physical reality.
The painting is also about Mary's role as a go-between for Christ and the viewer. She holds her son but looks into the distance, which suggests she knows his fate. Joseph holds fruit and Mary feeds some of it to Jesus. In the museum's reading the fruit is full of meaning: the apple stands for the fall of man, the cherries for the blood of Christ, peaches for salvation and pears for the sweetness of Christ's virtue.
The canvas is about 130 by 100 centimetres without its frame.
From the museum record
| Artist | El Greco |
|---|---|
| Date | c. 1590–95 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Size | Unframed: 130 x 100 cm |
| Museum | The Cleveland Museum of Art |
| Credit line | Gift of the Friends of The Cleveland Museum of Art in memory of J. H. Wade |
| Accession number | 1926.247 |
| Licence | Open Access (CC0) |
Source: The Cleveland Museum of Art collection record. Facts such as dates, sizes and credit lines come from that record. The write-up above was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the museum record and standard references. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
