St Joseph holding the Christ Child

Details

Provenance:
Baron Ferdinand Carl von Stumm (1880-1954), Rauischholzhausen Castle, Hesse;
thereafter in the possession of southern German nobility through succession.

Description

St Joseph gazes meekly down at the infant Jesus, whom he cradles lovingly in his arms on a white cloth. The narrow, almost portrait-like framing conveys the impression of an intimate moment in which Joseph ponders the fate of his foster son. This work by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, recently rediscovered in the possession of the Bavarian nobility, reveals the strong influence of his father Giovanni Battista and the close artistic collaboration between the two. In 1750, father and son travelled to Würzburg together to help decorate the prince-bishop’s residence. After a short stay in Venice, they were appointed to the court of King Charles III in Madrid in 1762, where they decorated several palace rooms with frescoes, although researchers still find it difficult to clearly distinguish the hands of each.
The depiction of St Joseph can be linked to an altarpiece that “Giambattista” painted for the church of San Pascual Baylón in Aranjuez around 1767 during his stay in Madrid, commissioned by the king. A fragment of this work is now in the Detroit Institute of Arts (inv. no. 44.213. The composition shows parallels to the present one, with Joseph depicted there in full figure with a flowering staff, but without a halo, and surrounded by a wide landscape context that merges into a city silhouette with a cathedral dome in the middle ground. Several putti and angels hover on clouds above the scene and honouringly offer a basket of flowers. The pose of the infant Jesus is also identical in both depictions, as evidenced by a preparatory red chalk drawing by Giovanni Battista, now in the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls (inv. no. 1971.80, cf. George Knox, Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo. A Study and Catalogue Raisonné of the Chalk Drawings, Oxford 1980, cat. no. M.110, ill. 263).
The fact that the Franciscan Joaquín de Eleta, confessor to Charles III, lived in Aranjuez probably had a decisive influence on the choice of motif. St Joseph had been venerated as the protector of the Spanish kingdom since 1689, and his veneration experienced a revival during the Counter-Reformation. During this period, numerous works of art were created that focussed on the intimate relationship between the infant Jesus and his foster father.