Madonna Nursing the Christ Child
Details
- Author / creator
- Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Spanish, 1617–1682)
- Object type
- Drawing
- Date or period
- c. 1670–72
- Dimensions summary
- Sheet: 21.4 × 15.4 cm; Secondary Support: 24.1 × 18.5 cm
- Place of origin
- Spain
- Acquisition method
- Bequest
- Credit line
- Bequeathed by Mrs Eleanor Vane, 1968
- Paper / support
- Wove paper
- Catalogue raisonné
- Brown 2012.75
- Image rights
- Public domain (CC0)
About this object
One of the finest of the rare drawings by Murillo, this sheet is a study for Virgin and Child, commissioned for the family chapel of the Marques de Santiago in Madrid and now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Prized today for their dynamism, Murillo’s drawings served the practical purpose of working out the positions of the figures. Here, the artist suggested the tender bond between mother and child with the poignant connection of their gazes. His animated line and zigzag hatching create the feeling of incessant motion while the addition of ink wash creates deep shadows across the forms.
Materials and technique
Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash over red and black chalk, with traces of white; framing lines in pen and brown ink
Signature and marks
in brown ink, upper right: Morillo
