Expertise in religious art required

[rayb]

Not my strong point....

This is Manama Michel 960B. Michel describes it as Rembrandt's Holy Family. They are clearly confusing it with 959B which IS Rembrandt's Holy Family. But I can't see this one possibly being by Rembrandt, whose usual palette is just about suitable for painting black cats in coalmines at night.

I have searched the web under all the obvious tags (Holy Family, Madonna and Child, Nativity etc) and also some candidates for the second woman (St Anne, St Catherine, Mary Magdalen). All without success.

Can anyone help me out?

[khj]

It's cropped from the painting "Holy Family with St. John the Baptist and St. Catherine" by Giovanni Antonio Guardi.

[rayb]

Very many thanks khj,

[khj]

You're welcome! Oddly enough, I had recently posted a souvenir sheet from Antigua showing the painting "The Holy Family" by Rembrandt! Souvenir sheets are SPECTACULAR!


The interesting thing is that the design on the stamp appears to be based on a reproduction rather than the original. You can see obvious differences (rotation of St. Catherine's head, part in Mary's hair...) that cannot be explained by poor scan/print quality.