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Gerrit van Honthorst was one of the leading Utrecht followers of Caravaggio. The influence of the great Italian master is clear in the down-to-earth nature of the scene, in the half-figures shown close to, and in the powerful contrasts of light and shade.
Honthorst spent some years in his youth in Italy where, for his love of the use of artificial light sources, he was known as Gerardo della Notte. The illumination creates a mood of romantic mystery.
The subject of this canvas is thought to be an apocryphal story from the childhood of Christ: Christ enters the workshop of Joseph, a carpenter, and simply by his appearance mysteriously corrects all the faults in Joseph's work.