Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin and Christ Child

Girolamo da Carpi painted this intimate work for the Este family of Ferrara, Italy; it adorned the oratory chapel of their palace. The painting shows Saint Luke drawing the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus while Joseph watches from a doorway. The infant appears agitated, as if he possesses foreknowledge of his death: He is reacting to the spear-like yarn winder, an attribute of the Three Fates from Greek mythology and a symbol of death in Christian contexts as well.

The painting’s distinguished history extends beyond the Estes. It later came into the possession of two Roman cardinals, two Roman princes, the English Duke of Westminster, Baron Alfred de Rothschild, and the Earl of Carnavon, who famously financed the excavation of King Tutankhamen’s tomb.