89 - A follower of BARTOLOMÉ ESTEBAN MURILLO (Seville, 1617 – Cádiz, 1682); 18th century.

A follower of BARTOLOMÉ ESTEBAN MURILLO (Seville, 1617 – Cádiz, 1682); 18th century. “Our Lady of the Rosary with the Child.” Oil on canvas. Shows patches on the reverse. Measurements: 65 x 26 cm; 80 x 42 cm (frame). This work follows the model of the painting “The Virgin of the Rosary with the Child” created by Murillo between 1650 and 1655, which is part of the permanent collection of the Prado Museum in Madrid. Previously, the original painting was housed at the Monastery of El Escorial and the Royal Palace in Madrid. Thus, we are looking at a work that follows the basic guidelines of Esteban Murillo, a preeminent religious painter who marked a turning point in 17th-century Spanish painting. The work depicts the Virgin in full figure, seated, holding the Infant Jesus on her lap; he stands in the shadow of her thigh, and she cradles him with her left hand while wrapping a rosary around him with her right. The child, just two years old, covers his genitals with a white cloth—a symbol of purity—held by his mother’s hands. Both figures are enveloped in a dimly lit atmosphere, set against a neutral and timeless background that prevents us from visualizing—or even imagining—the surrounding space. The artist focuses his painting particularly on the beauty of the faces, recreating an ideal of feminine and childlike beauty, though not quite reaching the level of what Murillo once proposed: completely angelic virgins. The child’s face and his rosy, serene complexion stand out, highlighted by the crimson-pink tones of his tunic and the navy blue of the Virgin’s cloak. Following Murillo’s original work, the figures—unlike other iconographies of the same type by Velázquez or Alonso Cano, in which the protagonists exchange glances—look straight ahead, toward the viewer. The version cataloged here, painted in the 18th century by a follower of the master, is an example of the enduring influence of Murillo’s style and the continued prestige of Sevillian painting in the European religious art world. It has patches on the back.