The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist
Ca. 1570.Room 052C
Morales here presents us with one of his most successful and heartwarming subjects, that of the Virgin and Child, although he also includes in this case the figure of the infant St John the Baptist, who looks out at the viewer with his blue eyes and, with a Harpocratic gesture, asks for silence so that Jesus’s sleep will not be disturbed. Illuminated by a strong light source, the scene stands out intensely against an almost black background. While the Child sleeps placidly with his right hand resting on a small basket of tiny fruits, perhaps wild strawberries, symbolising his future Passion, the Virgin covers him with a transparent veil to protect him from the bothersome flies, one of which has come to rest upon him. Morales had painted the insect in an earlier composition, on the sleeve of the blouse of the Virgin of the Hat (Madrid, Fondo Cultural Villar Mir) and may have used the detail to add greater realism to the scene while at the same time demonstrating his technical skill, although it should also be observed that this insect symbolises torment and so prefigures Christ’s Passion.
The model of the Virgin, with a slightly inclined oval face and curled hair, is the usual one in Morales’s repertory. This is not the first time he had shown her dressed in this manner, the salient feature being the graceful green hat with its broad, round brim and interlaced muslin ribbons, whose source of inspiration is somewhat complex.
A similar work, The Virgin of the Silence from the Colección Abelló, is also extant. Dated about 1550 and smaller in size, it shows the Child resting his hand on a small basket of cherries, a fruit also related with the Passion of Christ. The postures of the children differ from those of the Prado panel, but the silhouettes of the Virgins are almost identical, a fact we have been able to demonstrate by superimposing the two images and adjusting them to the same scale.
The paint on the Prado panel, made with finely ground pigments, is applied in thin layers with velature. Since its restoration in 2013, the work has been seen in all its beauty, and the gentle sfumato with which the figures are modelled can now be properly appreciated. Today it is possible to admire the genuine quality, impeccable technique and great delicacy which characterise Morales’s personal and unmistakable style (Text drawn from Sánchez-Lassa de los Santos, A. in: The Divine Morales, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2015, p. 86).
