The Holy Family surrounded by Saints

This panel is a reduced version of a large altarpiece. The Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia commissioned that one from Rubens in 1628 for the Augustinian church in Antwerp, and the saints crowded around the Virgin were not chosen at random. Each was the patron of a confraternity that worshipped in that church. Saint George stands on his dragon, Sebastian holds the arrows and bow of his martyrdom, Augustine appears as a bishop with a burning heart in his hand, and John the Baptist throws himself forward on the steps. The Virgin, raised on a pedestal with Joseph behind her, holds the child out to a kneeling woman the museum identifies as Saint Clare. She and Augustine both look out at whoever is standing in front of the picture. As the Prado tells the story, with a few question marks of its own, the panel reached Spain through Francisco de Rojas, a diplomat who handled purchases at the sale of Rubens's goods after the painter died in 1640, and the heirs made him a present of it.