It was an eccentric idea, and is difficult to be explained, to have represented the Holy Family near a great edifice in ruins, where is seen a broken column, which occasioned this picture to be named la Vierge au Pilier. The Infant Jesus is seated on the fragment of a cornice, adorned with sculptured arabesques. In the back-ground, St. Joseph, with a light in his hand, appears to be descending to a lower part of the building.

This composition is simple, the figures are grand, as also wonderfully graceful and true: the colouring is bright and mellow.

This picture, which is painted on wood, was formerly in the sacristy of the Escurial Palace, as companion to another Holy Family, called la Vierge à la Perle. It is now in the Madrid Museum. There exists a copy of it, which was formerly in the Crozat Collection.

It has been engraved by Charles Simonneau.

Height, 3 feet 3 inches; width, 2 feet 5 inckes.

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