Michelangelo’s The Holy Family portrays an intimate moment on a round panel, or tondo, encased in an elaborate, original frame. The work, often referred to as the Doni Tondo, was completed just before Michelangelo began the Sistine Chapel ceiling and gives hints of his movement toward Mannerism. The painting shows a progression of time—from the pagan era to the Christian era—as the viewer’s eye moves from the background to the foreground. A small, often overlooked figure of John the Baptist helps unite the work’s story.
The Master and the Commission
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, or Michelangelo, is one of the greatest artists in history—a master sculptor, painter, and architect. His is the most celebrated and documented artistic life of the 16th century. Living nearly 90 years and producing masterpieces for most of that time, he left an abundance of works, letters, commissions, and even two biographies written while he was still alive.
Michelangelo always considered himself a sculptor and viewed painting as a “lesser art.” In fact, his commission to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling was suggested by a competitor who hoped the famous sculptor would fail. He noted only didn’t fail, but he also expanded the vision for the ceiling and painted one of the most famous artistic cycles ever created.
A Tondo for Angnolo Doni
The Doni Tondo was a commission Michelangelo received prior to starting the Sistine ceiling. A tondo is a round painting, a shape commonly used for domestic scenes. The “Doni” in the name comes from the man who commissioned the work, Agnolo Doni, a wealthy Florentine banker. The painting was likely to celebrate either his marriage to Maddalena Strozzi or the baptism of their first child. For either occasion, a painting of the Holy Family would fit the domestic theme.
An anecdote illustrates the artist’s famously prickly temperament. The story goes that when the painting was delivered, Michelangelo requested 70 ducats for it. Doni, a shrewd businessman, countered by sending only 40. This insulted Michelangelo, who immediately demanded 100 ducats. Doni, truly wanting the painting, then sent the original price of 70. Michelangelo, not to be appeased, doubled the price to 140 ducats, forcing Doni to pay it. Records indicate the painting hung in the Doni house for some time.
Composition: A “Sculpted” Family
The Doni Tondo is the only panel painting by the mature Michelangelo that was completed without assistants. The composition of the Holy Family is unusual in several respects.
The positioning of Mary and Joseph is striking. In most depictions, Joseph is a minor figure seen off to the side—often portrayed as elderly (so as not to be a threat to Mary’s virginity) or even sleeping, seemingly unaware of the drama. Here, however, Joseph is portrayed as the family’s protector. Mary sits between his legs, and he envelops her. His head is higher than both hers and Jesus’s, an atypical placement that could indicate his importance as the caring head of the family.
There is debate over whether Joseph is handing the baby to Mary or if she is passing Jesus back to him. Regardless, the scene is not an elaborate presentation of doctrine but an intimate, gentle moment of familial closeness.
From Renaissance to Mannerism.
he Holy Family is painted in Michelangelo’s typical fashion: the figures feel sculpted. Both Mary and Joseph are muscular and solid. Their clothing is vibrant, and clear outlines around their bodies create sharp, clear images. The volume and draping of the fabric have substantive weight. As a sculptor first, all of Michelangelo’s paintings have this three-dimensional quality.
Both this sculpted feeling, the twisting pose of Mary (figura serpentinata), and the gorgeous colors are precursors to the work Michelangelo would do when painting the sibyls on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The colors themselves are worth noting, as this work and the Sistine Chapel helped usher in Mannerism.
Mannerism is a style that developed in the Late Renaissance. Growing tired of the perfectly composed, harmonious works of the High Renaissance, artists began to experiment with exaggerated colors, elongated bodies, and twisting, contorted poses to inject emotion and drama. Michelangelo, having mastered the ideals of the Renaissance, began to alter his style in his later career. We can see that transition occurring in this painting.
Iconography: The Three Eraso f Humanity
In contrast to the clear figures in the foreground, the figures in the background are vague and their edges blurred, indicating their distance. A small wall separates the foreground from these figures.
The most prominent theory about the painting’s meaning is that it represents the three eras of human history.
- The Pagan Era: In the background, five mysterious nudes represent the pagan world, or the era ante legem (before the law of God). They appear unaware of the Holy Family, suggesting a temporal, rather than spatial, distance.
- The Era of the Law: To the right, standing between the pagans and the Holy Family, is John the Baptist. As the patron saint of Florence, his inclusion was common. Here, he acts as the transitional figure. He appears to be in water, which is appropriate as he is “the Baptist,” but it also unifies the eras. Pagans also practiced a baptism of neophytes (hence the nudes), while John’s baptism prepares the way for Christ.
- The Era of Grace: In the foreground, the Holy Family represents the Christian era, post legem (after the word). Mary, who has a book on her lap, symbolizes this new age of grace and knowledge.
Other symbolic details are woven into the scene. Some suggest the Latin word for “gift,” donare, is a play on the Doni family name, and that Mary is “gifting” Jesus to Joseph, who acts as a stand-in for humanity. The flowers in the grass include clover, signifying the Trinity, and hyssop, referencing the Passion of Christ.
The Original Gilded Frame
The painting is still housed in its magnificent original frame, which Michelangelo is believed to have designed and which was likely carved by Marco and Francesco del Tasso. The gilded frame features flowers, moons, ribbons, and other elements from the family crests of both the Doni and Strozzi families, showing them linked.
Five sculpted heads protrude from the frame: Christ at the top, flanked by two prophets and two sibyls. Sibyls were ancient prophetesses who were believed to have predicted the coming of the Messiah. This repetition of prophets and sibyls is another precursor to the iconography Michelangelo would famously expand upon in the Sistine Chapel. It is rare for a painting’s original frame to survive intact, making this a particularly precious complete work.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at a lesser known painting by the esteemed Michelangelo. This is an interesting very short video of the Doni Tondo being moved while renovations were going on.
Sources
E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art. (New York, Phaidon Press, 2016)
Professor Sharon Latchaw Hirsh, How to Look at and Understand Great Art, Lecture series, Great Courses
Professor William Koss, History of European Art Lecture series, Great Courses
Sister Wendy Beckett, The Story of Painting (London, Dorsey Kindersley, 2000)
Marilyn Stokstad, Art History. (New Jersey, Pearson Education, 2005)
National Gallery of Art website www.nga.gov
Metropolitan Museum of Art website www.metmuseum.org
The Getty Center www.getty.edu
And thanks to the Met and Wiki commons quality images for public domain art is now much more easily accessible.
