Christ and John the Baptist as children and two angels

By about 1617 Rubens was back in Antwerp and the busiest painter in Catholic Europe. A picture like this shows what his clients wanted, warmth they could love on sight. The infant Christ and the young John the Baptist sit together, watched by two small angels, the whole scene soft and plump and welcoming. The subject comes from Christian legend, John's family calling on Mary and her child. What looks like pure sweetness carries a quiet warning. In the baby's hand is a bunch of grapes, the old sign of the wine of the Eucharist and so of the sacrifice still ahead of him. For all the tenderness, the two children are carefully placed. Rubens had spent years in Rome drawing antique statues, and he arranged these small bodies the way a sculptor sets marble.