Spanish school of the XVIII century

Spanish school of the XVIII century.
"The Education of the Virgin Mary".
Oil on canvas oval format.
Presents restorations.
Period frame with faults. Old xylophages.
Measurements: 58 x 43 cm; 66 x 52 cm (frame).

This work is part of the Spanish school of the eighteenth century, which represents the religious theme of the education of the Virgin. It is a scene showing St. Anne teaching Mary her first letters, a theme that does not arise from the Gospel literature but from the popular desire to highlight the role of the maternal line in the human education of the Son of God, a desire that also made St. Anne the patron saint of mothers. It is therefore a common and traditionally accepted theme, despite the fact that in the Scriptures it is said that the child Virgin was given to the temple for her education. It is an iconography that appears at the end of the Middle Ages and becomes popular from the 16th century onwards, the book appearing from then on as an attribute of Saint Anne. This theme was the center of intense discussions in the intellectual circles of Seville during the Baroque period. Within the counter-reformist doctrine, the Church dictated a series of rules to painters, aimed at regulating the treatment of the most fundamental themes of Catholic doctrine, so that they would be understandable to the people. In particular, the Virgin became one of the most beloved subjects for the Catholic faithful, since her immaculate conception was questioned by Protestants. Hence the proliferation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of cycles of the Virgin's life, one of whose scenes refers to her education. Although this theme aroused controversy among intellectuals, because it questioned Mary's perfection, it was very much to the taste of the people because of its human and realistic character.