The Return of the Holy Family to Nazareth
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
unframed: 134 × 99 cm · framed: 159.5 × 124 × 14.5 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
European Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of the Hanna Fund
Accession Number
1953.156
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
male
About this artwork
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.