The Holy Family with Saint Anne

This Holy Family with Saint Anne by El Greco has belonged to the Tavera Hospital since at least 1631, the first inventory in which it is listed as a donation from Teresa de Aguilera, widow of Alonso Capoche.

It is a work of extraordinary artistic quality, created, according to most historians, around 1595.

This is a devotional composition that enjoyed considerable popularity in Counter-Reformation Spain, which is why many variations survive.

Saint Anne gently caresses the child's head...

...who clings with his right hand to the fingers of his mother's left hand...

...while Saint Joseph, on the other side of the canvas, touches Jesus' foot with his left hand.

This protective activity of Saint Joseph, in his full maturity, rather than an old man, coincides with the new importance given to the putative father of Jesus by the most advanced currents of the Counter-Reformation.

An underlying drawing of the Virgin's face, visible only through an X-ray, shows us El Greco's working method, which sought the ideal of beauty in successive approximations based on a real model.

In fact, this face of the Virgin Mary is considered by critics to be one of the most beautiful feminine representations painted by the Cretan painter.

The result is a composition with an emotional and affective component, intentionally captured by the painter.