The Holy Family with the Young Saint John the Baptistca. 1528
Andrea del Sarto painted this in about 1528, aged about 37. It is now at The Met in New York. More about this work
About this work
Andrea del Sarto painted this in about 1528, aged about 37. It is now at The Met in New York.
How it was made
- Oil on panel
- Oil paint on prepared wooden boards, usually oak in the north and poplar in Italy. The rigid, smooth surface suits fine detail and thin, glowing glazes.
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
Andrea del Sarto
Italian, 1486–1530 · Born and died in Florence.
Andrea del Sarto, the son of a tailor, or sarto, spent almost his whole career in Florence and became its leading painter after Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael had left. His frescoes at the Santissima Annunziata and the grisaille cycle in the Chiostro dello Scalzo show his soft modelling and harmonious colour. He worked briefly for Francis I in France in 1518–19. Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino trained with him, and Vasari, his pupil, wrote his life.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Met has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 22.75
- Credit
- Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Type
- Paintings
- Department
- European Paintings
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
