Shop art print and framed art The Holy Family by Michelangelo Buonarroti

The Holy Family at the Tribune (or Tondo Doni) is a painting by Michelangelo currently in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. This painting, in both tempera and oil, was produced in 1506 or 1507. This circular painting is also known as "The Holy Family in the gallery" because it was commissioned as a private devotional work by Angelo Doni, a wealthy Florentine weaver, on the occasion of his marriage to Maddalena. This Tondo was painted after the discovery of the Laocoon group in Rome. Michelangelo drew inspiration from it for the pose of the nude behind Saint Joseph. In this painting, which measures 120 cm in diameter, the group in the centre is made up of Joseph holding the infant Jesus to Mary, so it is a Virgin and Child and a Holy Family. The figures form a pyramid-shaped composition within a circle. The circle refers to the idea of perfection and the triangle to stability, to the Holy Trinity. Behind the low wall on their left can be seen St John the Baptist as a child. Behind them are young Ignudi, naked figures. The poses of the nudes in the background are imitations of classical sculptures, and this group symbolises pagan humanity, the world before Christ. These pagan beauties create a blend of the pagan and the religious that is often found in Michelangelo's work, as in the Sistine Chapel. All these people can be considered allegorical: the naked figures in the background represent the era before the Law of Moses: paganism; in the foreground, the Virgin and the Christ [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the renaissance period. It belongs to the italian renaissance style.

 

Find the full description of The Holy Family by Michelangelo Buonarroti on Wikipedia.