The Holy Family with Saint Anne

Philip IV bought more paintings by Rubens than by any other artist, and the man who decided where they hung was Velázquez, his court painter, who was also in charge of furnishing the royal houses. He chose this Holy Family for the Prior's Chapter Room at the Escorial, among Raphaels and Titians. The picture works by touch. The Christ Child stands on his mother's knees with one hand on her bare breast and the other at her neck, while she steadies his body and holds up his left foot. Her dress is scarlet and her mantle a deep blue. Saint Anne's arms close around the two of them, and Joseph, bearded and older, watches with his chin in his hand. A monk at the monastery, describing the room in the 17th century, wrote that it was all done with such joy that it never failed to warm the people who stood in front of it. The painting appears in the inventory drawn up after the king died in 1665.