Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth and the Infant Saint John

Above all else, Italians prized disegno-the visual strength of the overall composition and the rendering of figures with convincing volumes. This quality is apparent in Giovanni Antonio da Brescia's Holy Family, a print nicely balanced by the presence of John the Baptist's mother, Elizabeth, at left. A pupil of Andrea Mantegna, Giovanni Antonio took inspiration for this engraving from a painting by the master. The hard, almost metallic finish in this monumental print seems somehow suited to Mary's elderly cousin Elizabeth, who bore John late in her life when God answered her prayers for a child.