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The Return of the Holy Family to Nazareth
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
When King Herod learned that he would lose his throne to a child born in Bethlehem, he ordered all male infants to be massacred. Mary and Joseph thus fled to Egypt to protect their son, Jesus. The age of the boy in this painting suggests that Poussin depicted the less-common subject of the Holy Family’s return from Egypt. Jesus reaches toward a vision of a cross borne by angels, a reference to both his eventual crucifixion and Herod’s cruel slaughter of innocent children.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineThe Return of the Holy Family to Nazareth, c. 1627. Nicolas Poussin (French, 1594–1665). Oil on canvas; framed: 159.5 x 124 x 14.5 cm (62 13/16 x 48 13/16 x 5 11/16 in.); unframed: 134 x 99 cm (52 3/4 x 39 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Hanna Fund, 1953.156
