Joseph's Dream

Joseph has fallen asleep in his chair, his tools on the floor at his feet. An angel sweeps in above him and points with one hand to Mary and with the other to heaven. Mary kneels at her prayer desk and looks up.

Joseph had found his betrothed with child and meant to leave her quietly. The angel's two hands carry the whole message: this woman, and that origin. Champaigne, born in Brussels, was the leading painter of religious pictures in Paris and close to the strict piety of the convent of Port-Royal.