In this surprisingly warm composition, there is nothing supernatural, mystical. Before us is just an idyllic scene from the life of a Spanish family. The baby holds in his hand a little bird. The white dog sitting next to him looks sweetly at her. His father gently and tenderly supports the boy and, perhaps, says something to him, or to the dog.
Mother distracted for a moment from her crafts and with a gentle and slightly weary smile watching this scene. Saint Joseph is depicted here as an old man who was not whitened by gray hair, as is usually the case, but as a young, full of strength man. Not in this picture and traditional for religious paintings nimbus over the heads of the characters. Due to its everydayness, the whole composition reminds of the religious works of the Dutch and Flemish masters, who often interpreted the scenes of the Holy Scriptures in their everyday ways.
However, most likely, Murillo did not mean to repeat the Dutch, when he wrote his “Holy Family”. It is more appropriate to assume here another. It is possible that Murillo, being an “autobiographical” artist, depicted the leisure of his own family in the “Holy Family”, giving the picture an appropriate name only to “justify” its birth.
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