Murillo, Bartolomé Esteban (1617-1682)
Virgen con el Niño (Virgin and Child)
1670s
Oil on canvas, 165.7 x 109.2 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Like Zurbarán and Velázquez, Murillo was trained in Seville, where he spent his whole career. Often referred to as the “Santiago Madonna,” this painting once belonged to the Marqués de Santiago, whose collection contained many outstanding works by the artist. The popularity of Murillo’s paintings of the Virgin and Child derives from his ability to endow a timeworn theme with a quality of intimacy and sweetness evident in both the soft modeling and, in this picture, the infant’s momentary diversion of attention from nursing, as if in response to the viewer’s presence. (MET)