BARTOLOME ESTEBAN MURILLO Seville (1618 / 1682) "Virgin wit

Oil on canvas. Reference bibliography: - Angulo Iñiguez, D., Murillo. Critical catalogue, 3 vols., Madrid, 1981; - Valdivieso, E., Murillo., Catalogue raisonne of paintings, El Viso, Madrid, 2012; - Perez SAnchez, A. and Navarrete Prieto, B., Young Murillo, cat. Expo., Museum of Fine Arts of Bilbao and Regional Government of Andalusia, 2009; - Hereza, P., Corpus Murillo. Paintings, drawings. Commissions, Seville City Council, ICAS, 2019. Bartolome Esteban Murillo was a great master in the creation of a type of sacred images that perfectly combined tangible reality with a visionary and spiritual atmosphere. These iconic works by the painter enjoyed great popularity, as they appealed to both lay and ecclesiastical clientele, as well as to the working classes, thus managing to endure over time. This moving painting depicts one of the most frequent themes of his career: that of the Virgin Mother holding her Child in her arms. The subject, as Pablo Hereza points out, is one of his most solid iconographic contributions, and throughout his extensive output, a clear evolution can be seen from a certain hieraticism, still evident in his early works, toward a greater interrelationship between the figures. The artist explored new representational keys, perhaps Neapolitan, which allowed him to achieve models that successfully burst onto the devotional market, enlivening the figures through touch or childlike rapture, successfully capturing the moment of maternal protection. A perfect example of what is being presented here is this unpublished work depicting the Virgin and Child, of which other very similar works are known and have also been attributed to the painter, such as the one preserved in the National Museum of Fine Arts of Cuba in Havana. The painting shown here focuses its emotional charge on the relationship of maternal and filial love established between the two protagonists, captured through the interplay of glances and the sweet expressions of the two figures who, fused in a tender embrace, stand out against a shadowy neutral background. The charm of the scene is underscored by the harmony of its color palette, with its characteristic pink and blue tones used in Mary's tunic and mantle, which contrast with the whites and soft tones of the flesh tones. The recent restoration of the painting and the studies that have been carried out allow it to be technically related to other works by Murillo, due to the pigments used, their preparation, and the type of brushstroke. In his X-ray study, a very accentuated contrast is evident due to the abundant use of lead white, sometimes mixed, and very dense pigments. A slight correction or repentance is also observed, something quite common in the Sevillian painter's works.in the position of the Virgin's fingers. Furthermore, it has also allowed us to confirm that the canvas was reused by the painter, as an underlying painting, probably autograph, can be seen, showing a small angel next to a drapery. This work will be included and studied under no. [M-37] in Hereza, Pablo: Corpus Murillo. Paintings and drawings. Mariology (pending publication) as a work by Murillo with a chronology of c. 1665-1670. Dimensions: 46 x 40 cm.