The Holy Family

Aelbrecht Bouts painted this Holy Family around 1520, depicting the intimate domestic grouping of the Virgin, Christ Child, and Saint Joseph that gained popularity as devotional emphasis shifted toward the humanity of Christ. The painting is in the Honolulu Museum of Art Egg tempera on panel was the dominant technique of the period, demanding careful layer-by-layer construction and patient craftsmanship The work is now in the collection of Honolulu Museum of Art.

The devotional composition is rendered with attention to the expressive and contemplative qualities that served the painting's function as an aid to prayer and meditation.