# The Infants Jesus Christ and Saint John the Baptist Embracing

- By: Joos van Cleve (Workshop of Joos van Cleve (Netherlandish, Active by 1507–1540/41))
- Date: 1520–25
- Medium: Oil on panel
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: 74.7 × 57.6 cm (29 7/16 × 22 11/16 in.); Framed: 87 × 70.9 × 6.4 cm (34 1/4 × 27 7/8 × 2 1/2 in.)
- Culture: Holland
- Credit line: Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/48532)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/4188f4df-ca48-3e3a-ecdf-aa79771093c4/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Adult profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Joos van Cleve sold many versions of this painting to an international clientele eager for luxury goods. To suit the taste of his customers, Van Cleve learned to adapt the ideal forms of the Italian Renaissance to a Northern European context. Here, the poses and modeling of the intertwined children are indebted to the Italian painter Leonardo da Vinci, while the elaborate metalwork accents and costly materials comprising the architec- ture are characteristic of Northern European art. This particular painting includes the arms of its first owner— Pompejus Occo, the Amsterdam representative of the powerful German banking firm of Fugger—along the upper edge.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0