School of BARTOLOME ESTEBAN MURILLO (Seville, 1617 - 1682). "Virgin and Child"- Oil on canvas. Relined. It presents Repainting and faults in the pictorial surface. Measurements: 146 x 104 cm; 157 x 115 cm (frame). Murillo invented an own model of Maternity, in which the union of the Mother and the Child was full and juicy, so that the tenderness and the affection were prioritized above all will to represent the figures in their sacredness. In fact, they could be ordinary people, a young woman with her child. The painter in question, a follower of Murillo, takes up this legacy, as he also makes an expressive baroque chiaroscuro his own. In the present version, the Virgin is represented full-length, seated, holding in her lap the Infant Jesus, seated on her thigh, whom she holds in her arms. The child, only two years old, is dressed in a white cloth, symbol of purity, held by his mother's hands. Both figures are enveloped in an atmosphere of darkness, inscribed in an indeterminate landscape, which does not allow us to visualize, or even imagine, the surrounding space. The artist focuses his painting especially on the beauty of the faces, recreating a prototype of feminine and childlike beauty, reaching what Murillo proposed at that time, completely angelic virgins. The faces and the rosy and serene flesh tones of the child stand out, which are underlined by the crimson pink tones of the Virgin's tunic. Following Murillo's original typology, the characters -unlike other iconographies of the same type made by Velázquez or Alonso Cano in which the protagonists cross their gazes-, look straight ahead, directed to the spectator. Little is known about Murillo's childhood and youth, except that he lost his father in 1627 and his mother in 1628, which is why he was taken under the tutelage of his brother-in-law. Around 1635 he must have begun his apprenticeship as a painter, very possibly with Juan del Castillo, who was married to a cousin of his. This working and artistic relationship would last about six years, as was customary at the time. After his marriage, in 1645, he began what was to be a brilliant career that progressively made him the most famous and sought-after painter in Seville. The only recorded trip he made is documented in 1658, the year in which Murillo was in Madrid for several months. It may be thought that at the court he maintained contact with the painters who resided there, such as Velázquez, Zurbarán and Cano, and that he had access to the collection of paintings in the Royal Palace, a magnificent subject of study for all those artists who passed through the court. Despite the few documentary references regarding his mature years, we know that he enjoyed a comfortable life, which allowed him to maintain a high standard of living and several apprentices. Having become the first painter of the city, surpassing in fame even Zurbarán, moved his will to raise the artistic level of local painting. For this reason, in 1660 he decided, together with Francisco Herrera el Mozo, to found an academy of painting, of which he was the main promoter. It presents Repainting and faults in the pictorial surface.