Holy Family with a Shepherd (early 1520s): Art, History and Details

Holy Family with a Shepherd (early 1520s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Battista Dossi (Italian, c. 1490–1548).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In this image of the Holy Family, Joseph and Mary lean in to admire the Christ Child while a shepherd looks on, leaning on his staff. Before executing this painting, Battista visited Rome, including an extensive study of Raphael's works. Afterward, Battista began a second style of painting, seen in the flexible pose of Christ, the small hands of the adult figures, the high foreheads, and each figure looking sideways or upward. The landscape is impressionistic and grainy as mysterious silvery-blue moonlight accents the thickly wooded landscape. Rich reds, browns, and greens color the picturesque landscapes, typical of Battista's second style. This small painting was originally attributed to Battista Dossi's brother, Dosso. Both brothers served as court painters to the Duke Alfonso I of Ferrara. However, the symmetry and vibrant colors of the painting, as well as the facial styles of the figures, characterize the work of Battista Dossi.

Object facts

• Title: Holy Family with a Shepherd
• Date: early 1520s
• Creator attribution: Battista Dossi (Italian, c. 1490–1548)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Unframed: 38.7 x 32 cm (15 1/4 x 12 5/8 in.)
• Collection: P - Italian 16th & 17th Century
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1949.185

Collection credit

Delia E. Holden and L. E. Holden Funds

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982.
• Francis, Henry. "An Oil by Dosso Dossi in the Holden Collection." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 37, no. 4 (April 1950): 63-66.
• Francis, Henry Sayles. Venetian Tradition: Catalogue of the Exhibition. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1956.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.