The Virgin with the Christ Child
XVII century.Not on display
The Virgin is depicted in three-quarter length, slightly turned towards the left and holding the Christ Child. A veil covers part of her head, and voluminous folds of this same garment surround her waist and hips. The background is plain. The Christ Child is turned towards the face of his mother, whose large, dark eyes look beyond the viewer with a distant and serious expression.
This drawing is not directly related to any of the surviving paintings of the Virgin and Child that Cano produced; the majority of these depict the Virgin with a lowered gaze and a more tender and serene overall appearance. The Virgin’s eyes and head recall Christ’s expression in Christ tied to the Column (D59). There is also a certain affinity with the facial type of Saint Agnes (previously in Berlin) destroyed in 1945 as well as with the Immaculate Conception (1650) in Vitoria.
The ink wash shading added to this drawing is simply a later reworking. If we ignore the density of the ink wash, we can observe the relatively serene brushstrokes that are characteristic of Cano’s drawings in the 1630s and 1640s. Although the finishing touch of this drawing is barer than that of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Hamburg, the handling of the pen and the quality of the brushstroke are similar. It is possible that the reinforcement imposed on the drawing by a later hand was the reason Wethey rejected the attribution to Cano.
Veliz, Zahira, Alonso Cano (1601-1667): dibujos, Santander, Fundación Marcelino Botín, 2009, p.218-219; nº 23
