The Holy Family (?) 1488 - 1560

Baccio Bandinelli created this drawing, known as “The Holy Family (?)”, with pen and brown ink, during the height of the Italian Renaissance. Bandinelli was famously competitive with Michelangelo, which makes this drawing a fascinating study in masculine artistic rivalry, and the visual construction of power. Note the muscularity of the Virgin Mary, who is typically represented as a figure of gentle femininity. Here, she is robust, almost Amazonian, as she cradles a child, whose size is also strikingly developed. This rendering challenges traditional representations, blurring the lines between male and female strength, and perhaps reflecting Bandinelli’s own striving for artistic dominance. The uncertain title invites us to consider: what is made ‘holy,’ and by whom? The artist infuses a familial scene with an undeniable tension, pushing us to consider the complex interplay of gender, power, and artistic ambition in the Renaissance.