2-888-614 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Christ in the House of His Parents - painted by J. E. Millais, 1850. Exhibition at the Royal Academy in London. The child Jesus shows the stigmata, presaging his crucifixion: '...a picture painted, it is said, on a wrong principle, but with a thousand merits, and many intentional defects. Mr. Millais has taken his subject from Zechariah xiii. 6: "And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends." What is called, somewhat slightingly, the pre-Raphaelism of this picture, is its leading excellence...The intentional deformities, such as the frost-bitten toes of Joseph, the sore heel of the Virgin, &c., are not at all to our taste ; but the picture has so many merits, that all its eccentricities may be very well excused, though they cannot be overlooked'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.