The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Vertically oriented painting depicting the Virgin Mary with the nude baby Christ in her lap and Joseph behind on our right, all with light skin tones. Mary wears red-orange robes, looking down at baby Christ who returns her gaze, reaching for a white and blue vase sprouting orange flowers. Mary reaches for Christ with one hand and brushes her red fingertips against the vase with the other. Joseph has a thick, white beard and hair.

The Holy Family

c. 1620s

Northern India, Mughal court, early 17th century

Gum tempera and gold on paper
Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection 2013.312
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

With hennaed fingertips Mary holds the vase so baby Jesus doesn’t tip it over.

Description

This painting of Joseph, the Virgin Mary, and the infant Jesus is based on European sources, but it also contains several details that are specifically Indian. For example, although Mary is dressed in classical European-style robes, she is adorned with jewelry of rubies and emeralds, the preferred gems of Mughal royalty. Her fingertips are also red with henna, and she wears a bindi on her forehead. The detailed rendering of the vase evokes the Catholic St. Francis as well as Indian worship of the sun. The vessel itself points to the appreciation of Chinese blue-and-white ware imported from imperial Ming-dynasty kilns to the court of Jahangir (reigned 1605–27).
  • Benay, Erin E. Italy by Way of India: Translating Art and Devotion in the Early Modern World. Turnhout: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2021. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 19–21, fig. 7
  • Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016).
    The Cleveland Museum of Art (7/31/2016-10/23/2016); Art and Stories from Mughal India, cat. 52, p. 99.
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 245); January 5, 2015 - April 27, 2015.
  • {{cite web|title=The Holy Family|url=false|author=|year=c. 1620s|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2013.312