Holy Family with two female figures

The artist spent much of his career in Rome, where he made many adaptations of the works of Renaissance and Baroque masters, and where this picture was probably painted. He combined a heightened use of colour with a meticulous technique. The treatment of the subject here is unusual since the Holy Family is rarely depicted with female companions. It is possible that one of the figures in the background is St. Anna, who frequently appears in paintings of the Holy Family. The Virgin and the infant are posed in the traditional manner of 'the Pieta', foreshadowing the lamentation of the dead Christ after the descent from the cross. In this painting, the child is unusual in covering his face with his hands. However, the fact that his genitals are clearly displayed is unsurprising, since this is commonly interpreted as an allusion to his earthly descent into manhood and to the circumcision. In Counter-Reformation Catholicism, paintings of the Holy Family were sometimes thought to be the earthly or terrestrial counterpart of the Holy Trinity (the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost).