Holy Family

Title: Holy Family (Barberini)
Artist: Andrea Del Sarto
Medium: Oil on panel
Size: 140 x 104 cm
Date: c. 1528
Location: Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome.

When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord they represented the Holy Family.

Veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Mgr François de Laval (30 April 1623 – 6 May 1708), the first Roman Catholic bishop of New France and one of the most influential men of his day. The feast of the Holy Family was instituted by Pope Leo XIII in 1893, and is now observed the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas, that is between Christmas and New Year's Day, or when there is no Sunday within the Octave (if both Christmas Day and New Year's Day are Sundays), it is held on 30 December, a Friday in such years.

Andrea del Sarto (1486 – 1531) was an Italian painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early-Mannerism. Though highly regarded during his lifetime as an artist senza errori ("without errors"), his renown was eclipsed after his untimely death by that of his contemporaries, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. In 1517 or 1518 he married a wealthy widow who had modeled for him for several years, both for portraits and for Madonnas. He went to France in 1518/19 at the invitation of François I and was well received there, but he broke his contract in order to return to his wife, who, in the opinion of contemporaries, ruined him. Andrea's works are of great importance in the evolution of Florentine painting, especially the Holy Families, often in half-length. His Madonnas are notable for their softly atmospheric qualities and the richness of their color, in contrast to the linear definition and clear, bright hues of artists like Botticelli and Ghirlandaio.

Annunciation

Title: Annunciation

Artist: Andrea del Sarto

Medium: Oil on wood

Size: 96 x 189 cm

Date: 1528

Location: Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence.

In the New Testament, the Annunciation is narrated in the Gospel of Luke 1:26-38. The text reads “the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.’" And so began the conversation where Mary is told of her conception of Christ, but when she asks the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?” she is told “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”

Del Sarto's painting is reported to have originally been in the form of a lunette, but was transformed to a rectangle at an unknown period. Regardless, in a supremely poetic range of changing colors, from yellow to pink to lilac to purple, The Annunciation expresses Andrea del Sarto's new taste. In this mature painting he no longer favors the intense and highly charged palette of the preceding years, but chooses delicate harmonies, without dissonances, and refined accords which give the composition a new balance, more quiet and refined than before. Gabriel is shown holding the traditional lily stalk signifying Mary's religious mind, the leaves her humility, the white petals her virginity and it's scent her divinity.

Andrea del Sarto (1486 – 1531) was an Italian painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early-Mannerism. Though highly regarded by his contemporaries as an artist "senza errori" (i.e., faultless), he is overshadowed now by equally talented contemporaries like Raphael. He was the best painter (as opposed to draughtsman) in 16th-century Florence, and had more feeling for tone and colors than any of his contemporaries south of Venice.