The Holy Family with Putti
- Medium
- Etching on ivory laid paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 28.8 × 40 cm (11 3/8 × 15 3/4 in.); Sheet: 30 × 40.5 cm (11 13/16 × 16 in.)
- Genre
- etching
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Tags
printprints and drawingetchingpaperpaper (fiber product)
About
Laurent de la Hyre studied at Fontainebleau between 1622 and 1625, where he probably learned printmaking. This etching, made in 1640 after a drawing now in Darmstadt, has been extolled as one of "masterpieces of French printmaking" by the art historians Pierre Rosenberg and Jacques Thuillier. A cluster of putti gather around the Virgin and infant Christ, who selects an apple from an overturned basket of fruit, reflecting his mission to redeem original sin.
