V

THE HOLY FAMILY


The pictures we have thus far studied in this collection are
reproductions of works of sculpture. This is the art which
Michelangelo loved best. He was, however, a painter also, and in the
later years of his life he was even drawn into architecture. Painting
was the first art he studied, but he soon laid it aside for sculpture,
and after that returned to it from time to time throughout his life.

This picture of the Holy Family is from an oil painting. It shows us a
glimpse of the home life of the child Jesus. We have already seen in
the bas-relief of the Madonna and Child how thoughtful a mood was
sometimes upon the mother and her boy. In this picture they are making
merry together. The mother, seated on the ground, tosses the boy with
her strong arms, for her husband Joseph to catch. She is a beautiful
woman, large, and full of life and vigor. The boy is a healthy, happy
child, with perfect confidence in his mother. He rests his fat little
hands on her head to steady himself.

Joseph, bald and gray, takes the play a little more seriously, as he
gently lifts the boy from the mother's arms. He has a special care for
the child. It was he who was warned by an angel in a dream that it
was dangerous to remain in Judæa. It was he who "took the young child
and his mother by night and departed into Egypt."[13] It was he again
who duly brought them back to their native country when the cruel king
was dead who had threatened the child's life. After the return from