The Holy Family and Saint John the Baptist

The Holy Family and Saint John the Baptist, painted in 1622 and now in the National Gallery in London, depicts the tender domestic gathering of the Virgin, Christ Child, Joseph, and the young John the Baptist — the scene often known as the 'Holy Kinship' — in Jordaens's distinctive idiom of warm Flemish physicality applied to sacred subjects. By 1622, Jordaens had fully developed his mature religious style: figures drawn from living Antwerp models, strong directional lighting derived from Caravaggio via the Utrecht school, and a compositional energy that makes even contemplative scenes feel inhabited by genuine people. The National Gallery's acquisition of this panel gives it a prominent place in one of the world's great painting collections, where it stands as a key example of Flemish Baroque religious painting outside the work of Rubens and Van Dyck. The panel format suggests the work was made for private devotional use rather than a church altarpiece.

The panel support allows precise, controlled paint application, and Jordaens takes advantage of it in the careful modelling of the children's faces. The composition is organised around the two infants — Jesus and John — whose interaction forms the emotional core of the work. Warm, golden light falls from one side, creating the chiaroscuro that animates the scene without dramatising it excessively.