Dream of Saint Joseph
1624
114.0 x 92.0 cm
Valentin de Boulogne (1591 – 1632)
Explore Valentin de Boulogne’s tenebrist paintings! French artist known for dramatic light & dark contrasts, Caravaggio influence, & scenes of fortune-telling.
An angel appears to Joseph in a dream, urging him to take Mary and Jesus and flee into Egypt. In the seventeenth century, Joseph became a paradigm of the guardian-father. Here, Valentin employs touch to enhance the physicality of the figures. One scholar has alluded to the importance of the notion of God’s grace in such a picture, to "the heavenly apparition at the very moment when, incapable of rising to the truths of the Spirit, exhausted by the effort, man falls back in his torpor."
About this artwork
- Title: Dream of Saint Joseph
- Artist: Valentin de Boulogne
- Year: 1624
- Original dimensions: 114.0 x 92.0 cm
- Format: Portrait
- Copyright status: Public domain
- Main color: Clay
- Perceived brightness: deep_shadow
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