The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist (recto); Amorous Putti at Play; Head of a Bird (verso)  1530

Although Michelangelo Buonarroti used the theme of the Madonna and Child many times during his life, here he chose to represent a variant of the motif, one not specifically related in the Bible but commonly depicted by artists in the 1400s and 1500s. The infant Saint John the Baptist and two angels join the Holy Family on an interlude in their flight into Egypt to escape H...