The Holy Family by Mattia Preti depicts a man, woman, and baby. Throughout the painting, Preti utilizes color, illusion, and brushstrokes from an amalgam of artistic techniques to lead the viewer’s eye, and emphasize specific aspects.
Color:
Preti uses color to convey a variety of depictions within the painting. Through a limited palette of primary colors, Preti saturates the blue, red, and yellow to create a neutral color.
Preti utilizes color to lead the viewer’s eye. The artist incorporates saturated red’s, blue’s and yellows from a limited color palette to emphasize focal points within the painting: the woman, and baby. The woman’s chest and neck show a tint of olive, which is analogous to the rich blue robe and soft yellow head wrap. The baby, inside the vivid red blanket, which is underneath coarse burlap: shown by its frayed edges and pattern weaves. To disassociate the elderly man, the artist creates depth
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Distinct from the others, the man is less defined as the artist has portrayed him with thick and sporadic brushstrokes that lack blending. The intricate brushstrokes increases around the man’s face and head. The man’s forehead has a large blotch generated from a repetitive and dense application of the medium, oil paint. The man’s ears and hair have long arched strokes, while his wrinkles display short and linear strokes. Therefore, the whole man exhibits a coarse texture, aside from the camouflaged brown robe. Whereas the woman has a delicate texture: with blended hair, face, robe, and hands, thus forming a smooth finish. However, Preti shifts to quick strokes that blur the transition from the woman’s left arm to her robe, and the area around her lips. There is even obscurity within the baby’s facial features as Preti emphasizes the intense red in the blanket. Overall, the artist connects an array of brushstrokes to emphasize certain characteristics of the