Circle of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Circle of BARTOLOMÉ ESTEBAN MURILLO (Seville, 1617 - 1682); end of the XVIII century.
"Virgin of the milk".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Measurements: 156 x 116 cm; 145 x 104 cm (frame).
The present work, ascribed to Murillo's circle and datable to the end of the XVIII century, recreates one of the most famous iconographic models of the Sevillian master: the Virgin of the Milk or the Gypsy Madonna, theme in which the daily humanity of Mary merges with the sacred dimension of the Incarnation. The composition, centered on the figures of the Virgin and Child, responds to a scheme of great formal simplicity and strong emotional intensity, characteristic of Murillo's mature production around 1675.
The model followed refers directly to the well-known version preserved in the Galleria Corsini in Rome, a work that achieved extraordinary fame during the nineteenth century and was enthusiastically described by Gustave Flaubert during his stay in the city in 1851. The writer evoked the magnetic force of the Virgin's head and the intensity of her eyes, which became the true expressive focus of the painting. That painting, popularly called "Gypsy Madonna" because of the natural and almost popular character of her features, exemplifies Murillo's ability to translate the religious theme into terms of "family narrative", stripping it of excessive solemnity and bringing it closer to the viewer through a deeply moving affective intimacy.
The Virgin's eyes, directed towards the viewer, generate a direct link that seems to interrupt the instant of breastfeeding, suggested by the slight displacement of the canvases. This solution responds to the iconographic orientations after the Council of Trent, which tended to make the representation of the act of breastfeeding less explicit, favoring instead suggestion and formal decency without renouncing the theological content of the divine maternity.
The light treatment, soft and enveloping, models the flesh tones with delicacy and creates a warm atmosphere, with amber tones and deep blues, evocative of the Murillo language. The sweetness of the types, the idealized roundness of the faces and the closed composition on the figures reveal the survival of the Sevillian master's style in late devotional environments. During the 18th century, the reiteration and adaptation of his models was frequent both in Andalusia and in other Hispanic contexts, proof of the rootedness and prestige of his painting.
The relined documents later conservation interventions, testimony to the long-lasting esteem for this type of images destined for private devotion or ecclesiastical spaces.