The Holy Family with Putti

Laurent de la Hyre studied at Fontainebleau between 1622 and 1625, where he probably learned printmaking. This etching, made in 1640 after a drawing now in Darmstadt, has been extolled as one of "masterpieces of French printmaking" by the art historians Pierre Rosenberg and Jacques Thuillier. A cluster of putti gather around the Virgin and infant Christ, who selects an apple from an overturned basket of fruit, reflecting his mission to redeem original sin.