Virgin and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist

1570 · Private collection

religious

This is an unusual depiction of the Virgin and Child by Morales, particularly so in its inclusion of the young St John the Baptist in the background. St. John's presence adds a narrative element to a scene that, for the most part, Morales almost always confines to a simple interaction between mother and child.

Virgin and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist

About the Artist

Luis de Morales

1520 – 1586

Spanish painter. He worked for most of his life in Badajoz, a town on the Portuguese border, and his style-formed away from the influence of the court or great religious and artistic centres such as Seville - is highly distinctive. His pictures are usually fairly small and he concentrated on devotional images. He painted numerous versions of the Virgin and Child, sometimes with the infant St John, and touching visions inspired by the theme Ecce Homo, which are among his most popular works. The piety of his work has earned him the nickname 'El Divino'. His style owes something to Netherlandish art, but his misty modelling seems to derive more from Leonardo da Vinci.

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