Ambrosiana
PORT ROYAL ET L'ITALIE
Annual international conference of the Society of Friends of Port-Royal is held, October 13-14 2023, Sala delle Accademie E.R. Galbiati.
Painted between 1525 and 1527, the artwork is striking for the immense gentleness with which Saint Joseph holds the infant Jesus, playind delicately with his foot, and for the tender look of Mary, passing a fruit to her husband, as though wishing to give him sustenance during the flight to Egypt. In the scene we see the young Saint John the Baptist, who is identified by his camel skin, together with the Archangel Raphael and Tobias, who is identified by the fish, from which he extracted the gall to cure his father’s blindness, as told in the Book of Tobit.