Artwork
The Holy Family and Two Angels
The Holy Family and Two Angels is an ink print by the Baroque artist Lucas Kilian. It dates from 1605 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Lucas Kilian’s 1605 engraving, titled *The Holy Family and Two Angels*, is a black‑and‑white print executed on laid paper. The composition gathers five figures in a dimly lit interior, centered on a woman cradling an infant, with a kneeling child beside her and two attendant angels, one winged and the other bearing a cross.
Subject & Meaning
The scene combines the traditional Holy Family motif with celestial intercessors, suggesting a devotional narrative that emphasizes protection and divine presence. The inclusion of a violin‑playing figure and a resting dog adds a domestic, everyday quality, grounding the sacred tableau in a familiar household setting.
Technique & Style
Kilian employs fine cross‑hatching, layering countless parallel lines to model volume and create deep shadows that give the figures a three‑dimensional appearance despite the flat surface. The delicate gradations of tone and the crisp delineation of details reflect the precision typical of early 17th‑century German engraving.
History & Provenance
Born into a family of printmakers, Kilian trained in the workshop of the Custos family in Augsburg, where his stepfather headed the studio. Throughout his career he produced a range of prints—portraits, mythological scenes, and anatomical studies—of which this religious work is a representative example.
Context
The engraving emerges from a period when Augsburg was a thriving center for print culture, supplying images for both private devotion and the broader market. Kilian’s output reflects the city’s demand for detailed, reproducible religious imagery that could be disseminated widely.
Artist & collection
Artist
Lucas Kilian (Lucas Kilianus Augustanus; 1579–1637) was a German engraver and etcher from the Kilian family of engravers in Augsburg.
