MURILLO School of the seventeenth century. Lot n° 34

MURILLO School of the seventeenth century. "Education of the Virgin". Oil on canvas. Relined. Measurements: 110.5 x 80 cm; 126.5 x 96.5 cm (frame). This work, clearly influenced by Murillo, is part of the Andalusian school of the mid-seventeenth century, which represents the religious theme of the education of the Virgin. It is a scene where the Virgin shows St. Anne teaching Mary her first letters, a theme that does not arise from the Gospel literature but from the popular desire to highlight the role of the maternal line in the human education of the Son of God, a desire that also turned St. Anne into the patron saint of mothers. It is therefore a common and traditionally accepted theme, despite the fact that in the Scriptures it is said that the child Virgin was given to the temple for her education. This iconography appears at the end of the Middle Ages and becomes popular from the sixteenth century, since then the book appears as an attribute of St. Anne. It was the center of intense discussions in the intellectual circles of Seville during the Baroque period. Within the counter-reformist doctrine, the Church dictated a series of norms to the painters, destined to regulate the treatment of the most fundamental themes of the Catholic doctrine, so that these were understandable for the people. In particular, the Virgin became one of the most beloved subjects for the Catholic faithful, since her immaculate conception was questioned by Protestants. Hence the proliferation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of cycles of the Virgin's life, one of whose scenes refers to her education. Although this theme aroused controversy among intellectuals, because it questioned the perfection of Mary, it was very much to the taste of the people because of its human and realistic character. It is worth mentioning that the style of the painting shows a palette and a type of subtly idealized figures of Murillo influence. The fineness of the gestures, the elegance of the figures, their features, the details of the drapery and the infant figures clearly show that the work belongs to the Murillo school of the 17th century.