Christ in the House of His Parents by John Everett Millais (Interpretation and Analysis)

Christ in the House of His Parents
Source: Wikimedia Commons

These days, artists of the Pre-Raphaelite movement have almost obtained the status of the “Old Masters.” The work of artists such as William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti is respected, studied, and carefully catalogued in the hallowed halls of museums around the world. So, it’s difficult to imagine how controversial Pre-Raphaelite art was when it was first created.

Christ in the House of His Parents is perhaps the most controversial piece of art in the Pre-Raphaelite oeuvre. Millais created this masterpiece early in his career, when the Pre-Raphaelite movement was still new and not always appreciated in the art world.

As the title suggests, the piece depicts Christ as a child in the house of his parents. Here, we see the Holy Family assembled in Joseph’s workshop, where Joseph is building a door on the workshop table. In the foreground, the Christ Child has injured his hand on a nail. The Virgin Mary comforts him with a kiss, while young John the Baptist brings water to wash the wound, and Christ’s grandmother, Anne, approaches with pincers, ready to remove the nail from his hand.

The painting is full of Christian symbolism. The bleeding wound on Christ’s hand prefigures the stigmata of the crucifixion, while the water that young John the Baptist symbolizes the Baptisms that he will conduct in the future. The carpenter’s triangle hanging on the back wall symbolizes the Holy Trinity.

Yet, despite Millais’s serious and deeply considered approach to this spiritually rich religious subject, Christ in the House of His Parents received almost universally negative reviews from critics. Traditionally, religious figures are depicted in opulent splendor in Western art. Therefore, when Millais decided to portray the Holy Family as ordinary, working-class people living in a humble home, the art world was outraged. Christ in the House of His Parents represents a radical commitment to realism, while also maintaining the solemnity of the subject matter (although this was not recognized by viewers at the time). The painting was such a departure from artistic convention that many viewers considered the piece to be sacrilegious or even repulsive. Famously, the author Charles Dickens described the painting in the following words:

“...a hideous, wry-necked, blubbering, red-haired boy in a nightgown, who appears to have received a poke playing in an adjacent gutter, and to be holding it up for the contemplation of a kneeling woman, so horrible in her ugliness that (supposing it were possible for any human creature to exist for a moment with that dislocated throat) she would stand out from the rest of the company as a monster in the vilest cabaret in France or in the lowest gin-shop in England.”

Dickens’ comments illustrate the shock and controversy surrounding the emergence of the Pre-Raphaelite movement in England. Like most great, trailblazing artists, the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood would have to wait to see their genius and creativity recognized. (Although most Pre-Raphaelite achieved a fair amount of success and acclaim within their lifetimes.)

However, modern viewers see something different in Christ in the House of His Parents. Today, the painting is viewed as an early Pre-Raphaelite masterpiece, a piece of art that defines the style and the new ideas that it would come to represent. For scholars, the painting is an important historical artifact. Yet, Christ in the House of His Parents is also more accessible to modern audiences than it was to nineteenth century viewers. Twenty-first century Christians are certainly do not envision the Holy Family in rich clothing or jewels; it is far more usual to depict Christ and his family in the guise of ordinary people. In creating this piece, Millais was ahead of his time. His view of the Holy Family is surprisingly modern, yet deeply affecting. It remains one of Millais’ greatest masterpieces.