Adolescence of the Mother of God ( Adolescence of the Madonna ) is a painting by the Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbaran from the collection of the State Hermitage .
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| Francisco de Zurbaran | ||
| Adolescence of Our Lady . Around 1658-1660 | ||
| Oil on canvas . 73.5 × 53.5 cm | ||
| State Hermitage Museum , St. Petersburg | ||
| ( inv. GE-306 ) | ||
The painting depicts a girl of 7-10 years old sitting on a chair, dressed in a red dress, needlework lies on her lap. The picture illustrates the Christian legend of the childhood of the Mother of God , leading its origin from the apocryphal “ Proto- Gospels of James ” (chapter X) and “The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew ” (chapter VI).
Mary was a surprise to the whole nation. At three years old, she walked in a sedate manner and gave herself so completely to the praise of the Lord that everyone was amazed and admired. She did not look like a baby, but seemed already adult and full of years - with such diligence and constancy she offered prayers. Her face shone like snow, and it was difficult to look at him. She diligently engaged in needlework on wool, and everything that adult women could not do, She showed them, being at such a tender age. She made it a rule to indulge in prayer from morning to three and to do manual work from three to nine [1] .
A similar type of images of a girl in the image of young Maria, engaged in needlework (embroidery, yarn), sometimes reading, has been widely used in Western European painting since the beginning of the 17th century. The Spanish mystic poet Nieva Calvo wrote in 1625:
... With her divine ... hands / she embroidered the sacred ornaments of the Temple ... / ... She was not tired of being in the Temple / meditating with a holy and pure soul / over many Scripture lessons ... (Nieva Calvo S. de. La mejor mujer, Madre by Virgen: Sus excelencias, uida in grandezas repartidas por sus fiestas todas. - Madrid, 1625. - Fol. 60) [2] [3] .
Very close to her is the picture of Zurbaran "The Childhood of the Virgin" from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (circa 1632-1633, oil on canvas, 116.8 × 94 cm, inventory number 27.137) [4] , replete with details and with a rich background; according to L. L. Cagane , the curator of Spanish painting in the Hermitage, in the New York painting "The theme was solved solemnly and verbose." The next step in the development of this plot in the artist’s work was the painting, conditionally called “The Sleeping Girl Maria”, which is stored in the Cathedral of San Salvador in Jerez de la Frontera ; this picture dates from between 1640 and 1650 [5] . It already shows the artist’s desire to minimize extraneous details, here "the deep religious feeling of a girl immersed in thought about the holy book is brought to the highest degree." The Hermitage painting was created in the late 1650s and demonstrates the completion of the artist’s creative search for the development of the childhood story of the Virgin Mary. L. L. Kagane notes that she
combines the motives of the previous options, Mary is shown to interrupt needlework, praying, but there is no ecstasy, her feeling is restrained, not affected, and at the same time unusually strong and sincere. Zurbaran almost completely refuses details, concentrating all attention on the girl. The clothes are conveyed in local, saturated colors, but at the same time with a complex gradation of shades, the contrasts of light and shadow on the folds are softened, and the background of the picture, although dark, looks airy and light [6] .
Another very close version of the painting (80 × 50 cm) is in the collection of the Manuel Gomez-Moreno Institute of the Rodriguez Acosta Foundation in Granada. The girl depicted looks a little older than in the Hermitage painting. Other variants of the picture are known.
The chief curator of the Louvre painting department, Jeanine Baticle suggested that the model for the Virgin Mary was the daughter of Zurbaran Manuel. Little is known about her. It is assumed that she was the daughter of Zurbaran from her third marriage with Leonora de Tordera and was born around 1650. She is mentioned in a document of 1657 indicating that she is seven years old and in a letter from the artist in 1663; however, in his 1664 testament there is not a word about her, although two of his other daughters, Maria and Paula, are mentioned there in parallel. [2] L. L. Kagane suggests that she died around this time [6] .
The early history of the painting is unknown. At the beginning of the XIXth century, it was in the collection of the English banker W. Coosevelt and was purchased from him in 1814 in Amsterdam by Emperor Alexander I [7] . It is exhibited in the building of the New Hermitage in Hall 239 (Spanish Clearance) [8] .
In 1985, the USSR Ministry of Communications issued a postage stamp with a reproduction of this painting, the face value of the stamp is 4 kopecks (No. 5597 according to the CFA catalog ).
Childhood of Our Lady. Metropolitan Museum
"Adolescence of Our Lady" on a USSR postage stamp
Notes
- ↑ Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. Ch. VI.
- ↑ 1 2 Baticle, 1987 , p. 256.
- ↑ Kagane, 2008 , p. 273.
- ↑ The Metropolitan Museum of Art. - Francisco de Zurbarán. The Young Virgin.
- ↑ Baticle, 1987 , p. 287-289.
- ↑ 1 2 Kagane, 2008 , p. 275.
- ↑ Levinson-Lessing, 1986 , p. 143.
- ↑ State Hermitage Museum. - Zurbaran, Francisco de. "The Adolescence of Our Lady"
Literature
- Kagane L. L. The State Hermitage Museum. Spanish Painting of the 15th - Early 20th Centuries: Collection Catalog. - SPb. : Publishing House of the State Hermitage Museum, 2008. - 352 p. - ISBN 978-5-93572-328-6 .
- Levinson-Lessing V.F. History of the Hermitage Picture Gallery (1764-1917). 2nd ed., Rev. and additional .. - L .: Art, 1986. - 426 p.
- Baticle J. , Bottino Y., Brown J., Pérez Sánchez A. Zurbaran (English) . - NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harry N. Abrams Inc, 1987 .-- 334 p. - ISBN 0-8109-1791-2 .