The Virgin and Child with Saints
1669.Not on display
In an apse-shaped interior on a pedestal, the Virgin is depicted seated with the Christ Child standing on her lap. Saint Anne appears behind her, and to her right the Infant Saint John is drawn with the lamb. To the observer’s right, in the foreground of the composition, Saint Peter and Saint Michael are depicted, and to the left, Saint Francis and Saint Anthony. Behind them, on a platform with balustrade and columns, some figures are included. They seem to carry musical instruments (although they have been identified as Virtues).
This is an initial design for the canvas of The Virgin with Saints and the Theological Virtues, dated 1669 and located in the Prado (P00660). The composition of that canvas must have been of great importance to the artist since there is another preparatory drawing – in certain aspects closer to the final version – that was acquired by the Louvre. It is also possible to consider it as the preparatory work for another canvas different from the above, devised in the same way and taking elements from the aforementioned (P00660) and from another canvas at the Prado (P00661), of which certain similarities can be identified in the drawing.
Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E., Catálogo de Dibujos. Vol.I. Dibujos españoles siglos XV-XVII, Madrid, 1972, p.83
