Artwork Page for Christ and the Virgin in the House at Nazareth

Details / Information for Christ and the Virgin in the House at Nazareth

Christ and the Virgin in the House at Nazareth

c. 1640

Francisco de Zurbarán

(Spanish, 1598–1664)
Culture
Spain
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
Framed: 201 x 256 x 10 cm (79 1/8 x 100 13/16 x 3 15/16 in.); Unframed: 165 x 218.2 cm (64 15/16 x 85 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1960.117
Public Domain
You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.
Location
On view at National Gallery, London, London, May 2, 2026 - Aug 23, 2026
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Did You Know?

Zurbarán, also a still-life painter, tilts the tabletop to emphasize the symbolic books and fruit.

Description

Stories of Christ’s childhood and adolescence became increasingly popular during the Counter-Reformation because they were easily understood by a broad public. Rather than taking a story from the Bible, Zurbarán appears to have invented this subject, in which Jesus pricks himself on a crown of thorns he is weaving, foretelling his later torment at the Crucifixion. Despite the grand scale and monumental figures, the work has remarkable intimacy and quietness, emphasizing such details as the Virgin’s tears.
A horizontally oriented oil painting depicts a boy and a woman, both with light skin tones, sitting in a room. There are various items around them, including a table behind them, flowers at the right, and two white birds at the bottom right corner of the painting. From our left to our right, the boy pricks himself on a circle of thorns in his lap while the woman looks toward him with tears falling down her cheeks.

Christ and the Virgin in the House at Nazareth

c. 1640

Francisco de Zurbarán

(Spanish, 1598–1664)
Spain

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