The Holy Family
Mid-XVIIcentury.Not on display
This is a loose copy of a painting housed in the Monastery of El Escorial, where Father Santos referred to it in 1658 as hanging in the ‘old’ church. There is another work on the same subject in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux that is attributed to either Paolo Caliari Veronese’s workshop or to his brother Benedetto.
The painting came from the Royal Collections, but after it entered the Museo del Prado in 1857, it was attributed to Escalante. It is quite a convincing claim given his well-known admiration for Veronese, the models he introduced into his version and the technique used. In fact, we can see that his models are of Canesque lineage; the application of colour suggests a close relationship with this master from Granada.
The El Escorial work portrays an interior scene in which the infant Saint John offers the sleeping Child an apple and Saint Joseph’s rod is very visible. Escalante’s version extends upwards, and at the top of the painting a heavenly radiance illuminates two pairs of angels and seraphim. The analysis of this work suggests that the top of the one at El Escorial was cut off at some point.
