The Holy Family with Saints Francis and Anne and the Infant Saint John the Baptist  1638

An ecstatic Saint Francis adores the infant Christ, who appears in this warm-hearted vision with the Virgin Mary, her mother Saint Anne, a subdued Saint Joseph, and a playful young Saint John the Baptist. Rubens made a number of modifications in the course of work, intensifying the friar’s impetuous movement and revising the Virgin’s pose from a formal profile to a casual ...