Images

Wenzel Hollar (Bohemian, 1607-1677) after Pieter van Avont (Flemish, 1599-1652).

Christ and St. John as Infants with Child Angels, c. 1650. Etching 12.7 x 20.5 cm. G. Parthy, Wenzel Hollar: Beschreibendes Verzeichniss seiner Kupferstiche, Berlin, 1853, no. 495.

Hollar, one of the most popular and prolific printmakers of the seventeenth century, has taken the theme of the Holy Cousins from a drawing by his friend van Avont, who specialized in prints of playing children. St. John kneels and tenderly embraces his cousin, the hair shirt which he was to wear in the desert draped around his pudgy body and the water bowl with which he baptized Christ at his feet. Child angels at the left play with a cross and a kneeling lamb tethered with a string—bolh of which symbolize Christ's sacrifice. Christ and St. John as infants was a popular subject in Western Art, especially in the north, where they are usually shown playing under the supervision of their mothers Mary and Elizabeth, often with the Instruments of the Passion serving as toys.