The Holy Family with the Parrot

By 1633, Rubens was the most sought-after painter in Europe, a knighted diplomat running a large Antwerp workshop. That year he handed this panel to the Guild of Saint Luke, the painters' guild he had joined back in 1598 as a young master. What he gave them was not a fresh work. He had begun it around 1614 as a smaller picture of Mary and the child, then later enlarged the wooden panel, adding Joseph in the shadow on the right and the parrot on the left. The bird carried an old meaning, a symbol of Mary's purity, and it was also a costly imported pet, painted so convincingly from life that it doubled as a display of the master's skill. The green parrot still reaches toward the Virgin's hand.