The exhibition includes “The Holy Family,” an oil on panel from approximately 1520 by Netherlandish artist Gerard David. (photo courtesy of the Getty Museum)

The J. Paul Getty Museum will explore changing portrayals of the Holy Family in Northern European art in “The Holy Family at Home,” opening Tuesday, Sept. 22, at the Getty Center. 

On view through Jan. 10, 2027, the exhibition centers on the museum’s recently acquired “The Holy Family,” painted around 1520 by Netherlandish artist Gerard David. The painting will be displayed alongside illuminated manuscripts and panel paintings dating from approximately 1400-1530, including works from the Getty Museum’s collection and loans from California institutions and private collections. 

David depicts the Virgin Mary, Christ child and Joseph gathered for a meal in a home surrounded by the Northern European countryside. Mary and Jesus embrace in the foreground while Joseph holds a covered wooden bowl to keep food warm. 

The exhibition examines how David’s painting reflects a changing perception of Joseph during the late medieval and Renaissance periods. Rather than portraying him as a passive or peripheral figure, artists increasingly presented Joseph as an earthly father and provider who participated in the Holy Family’s everyday life. 

“This exhibition provides an opportunity for the museum to showcase the formal and thematic connections among the holdings of northern late medieval and Renaissance art in our collection,” Getty Museum director Timothy Potts said. 

Religious writings and sermons during the period increasingly emphasized Joseph’s role in raising Jesus. The exhibition also examines the influence of “devotio moderna,” or modern devotion, a religious movement in Northern Europe that encouraged people to find spiritual meaning in ordinary experiences. 

Artists depicted the Holy Family in domestic settings engaged in familiar activities including reading, preparing meals and playing with toys. A French manuscript in the exhibition shows Mary nursing the infant Jesus while Joseph prepares food by a fire. Another manuscript, “The Flight into Egypt,” shows Joseph carrying Jesus as he walks beside Mary and a donkey, departing from traditional portrayals in which Mary carries the child. 

The exhibition also places David’s work alongside paintings by artists who preceded him. Loans include depictions of the Virgin and Child by Rogier van der Weyden from the Huntington and Dieric Bouts from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. 

Van der Weyden depicts the infant Jesus opening the clasp of a book of scripture while being held by Mary. In Bouts’ painting, the infant Jesus seeks his mother’s attention while Mary appears somber. 

Another featured work is Quentin Metsys’ “Madonna of the Cherries,” which entered the Getty collection in 2024. Metsys depicts Jesus wrapping his arms around Mary and kissing her while the figures sit in an elaborate throne room overlooking a landscape. 

“Gerard David innovatively combined established imagery with a new domestic sensibility that heightened the significance of the Holy Family for his patrons,” Getty Museum paintings curator Anne Woollett said. “These intimate images used in private devotional practice resonated with viewers over 500 years ago and continue to compel us today.” 

Woollett curated the exhibition with Elizabeth Morrison, senior curator of manuscripts at the Getty Museum. 

On Nov. 7, Woollett and Morrison will join Maryan Ainsworth, curator emeritus of paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Thomas Kren, the Getty Museum’s former director for collections, for a discussion at the Getty Center that will also be livestreamed. 

The Getty Center is located at 1200 Getty Center Drive. 

For information, visit getty.edu.