St. Joseph and the Christ Child

Artist Claudio Coello (Spanish, 1642-1693)

Place of OriginSpain

Date1666

DimensionsH: 72 1/2 in. (184.2 cm); W: 40 1/2 in. (103 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1981.44

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 36

Label TextSaint Joseph, earthly father of Jesus, was particularly revered in Spain during the 1600s. Whereas traditionally Joseph had been represented as an older man, paintings like this one, showing him as a young father holding the Christ Child, became common in Spain. Joseph’s carpentry tools and thin curls of shaved wood rest on the floor, and he points to the wooden cradle he has just finished. In the background, Mary sews, completing the image of the ideal family through her domestic work. These references to the earthly world mingling with heavenly angels emphasize Christ’s dual nature as both human and divine. Claudio Coello was only 24 when he painted this work, but already an accomplished artist. The painting shows his mastery of the soft style and brilliant colors, achieved by layers of translucent glazes, common in 17th-century Spanish painting. The blank areas in the upper corners of the canvas show that the painting—probably painted for a church—was originally intended for an arched frame.Published References

"La chronique des arts," Gazette des Beaux-arts, vol. 99, no. 1358, March 1982, p. 46, repr. no. 236.

Sullivan, Edward J. and Nina A. Mallory, Painting in Spain 1650-1700, Princeton, University Art Museum, 1982, no. 14, pp. 71, 72, repr. (col.) front cover and p. 128.

"Calendar," Burlington, vol. 124, no. 953, Aug. 1982, p. 536, repr. fig. 53, p. 533.

Harris, Enriqueta, "A Final Flowering," Times Literary Supplement, no. 4151, Oct. 22, 1982.

Sullivan, Edward J., Baroque Painting in Madrid, Columbia, MO, 1986, p. 111, repr.

Mallory, Nina A., El Greco to Murillo, New York, 1990, p. 283, fig. 223.

Mexican Devotional Retables from the Peters Collection, Philadelphia, 1994, p. 66, pl. 12.

Black, Charlene Villaseñor, Creating the Cult of St. Joseph: Art and Gender in the Spanish Empire, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2006, p. 72, 75, fig. 34.

Stobaeus, Per, Josef: Om Jesu Far i Bibeln och den Kristna Traditionen, Skellefteå, Artos & Norma bokförlag, 2014, repr. (col.) p. 203.

Roglan, Mark A., ed., Spanish Art in America, Madrid, Spain, Ediciones El Viso, 2016, repr. (col.) p. 238 (general section on TMA, pp. 233-239).

Exhibition History

Princeton, University Art Museum; Detroit Institute of Arts, Painting in Spain 1650-1700, April 18-Sept. 19, 1982, no. 14.