The engraving ‘The Holy Family’ was transferred to the Museum Estate in November 1984 from the State Russian Museum.
The Virgin Mary is pictured in the foreground. She stretches her arms to lift the Infant Christ. On the right-hand side, Saint Elizabeth bents over the carved cradle. She cuddles her son in her arms — St John the Baptist, who holds a cross. Saint Joseph leans with his right elbow on the table and stands on the right-hand side, behind Mary’s back. Two angels are depicted in the background. One angel opens the wings and strews flowers over the Virgin Mary and the Infant.
Artist Petr Belousov made this engraving based on the painting “The Holy Family of Francis I” (“Sacra Famiglia di Francesco I”). Scientists have been arguing about the authorship of the painting up to the present day. One theory is that the canvas was commissioned by Pope Leo X and painted in 1518 by Rafael Santi, the prominent Italian painter. The painting was destined to be a gift for the French queen, wife of Francis I. However, some researchers believe that Raphael simply left his signature on the painting, and in reality, the artwork was created by his students. Presently, the original painting is housed in the Louvre Museum. Such masters of engraving art as Esther Duflo, Gérard Audran, François Chéreau, and others repeatedly used the biblical composition of this painting as the basis for their own artworks.
The engraving is displayed on the dining room wall in Tchaikovsky’s family house. In the 19th century, it was fashionable among the nobles to completely cover the walls of their dining and living rooms, and offices with paintings, engravings, and drawings of townscapes, hunting scenes, picturesque alcoves of gardens and parks. The engravings had mahogany frames and were covered with glass to match with the rest of the interior.
Printmaking is the process of creating an image (a mirror image of the original) by pressing a sheet of paper and a matrix (metal, wood, or glass printing plates). One of the key features of this technique is that the actual artwork is the paper print itself, called by the French term ‘estampe’, and not the printing plate (‘board’) engraved by the artist.
The Virgin Mary is pictured in the foreground. She stretches her arms to lift the Infant Christ. On the right-hand side, Saint Elizabeth bents over the carved cradle. She cuddles her son in her arms — St John the Baptist, who holds a cross. Saint Joseph leans with his right elbow on the table and stands on the right-hand side, behind Mary’s back. Two angels are depicted in the background. One angel opens the wings and strews flowers over the Virgin Mary and the Infant.
Artist Petr Belousov made this engraving based on the painting “The Holy Family of Francis I” (“Sacra Famiglia di Francesco I”). Scientists have been arguing about the authorship of the painting up to the present day. One theory is that the canvas was commissioned by Pope Leo X and painted in 1518 by Rafael Santi, the prominent Italian painter. The painting was destined to be a gift for the French queen, wife of Francis I. However, some researchers believe that Raphael simply left his signature on the painting, and in reality, the artwork was created by his students. Presently, the original painting is housed in the Louvre Museum. Such masters of engraving art as Esther Duflo, Gérard Audran, François Chéreau, and others repeatedly used the biblical composition of this painting as the basis for their own artworks.
The engraving is displayed on the dining room wall in Tchaikovsky’s family house. In the 19th century, it was fashionable among the nobles to completely cover the walls of their dining and living rooms, and offices with paintings, engravings, and drawings of townscapes, hunting scenes, picturesque alcoves of gardens and parks. The engravings had mahogany frames and were covered with glass to match with the rest of the interior.
Printmaking is the process of creating an image (a mirror image of the original) by pressing a sheet of paper and a matrix (metal, wood, or glass printing plates). One of the key features of this technique is that the actual artwork is the paper print itself, called by the French term ‘estampe’, and not the printing plate (‘board’) engraved by the artist.
