Spanish school; c. 1700.

Spanish school; c. 1700.
"The Education of the Virgin".
Oil on canvas.
Presents faults.
It has a frame of the nineteenth century.
Measurements: 65 x 51 cm; 75 x 60 cm (frame).
It is a scene where the Virgin shows St. Anne teaching the first letters to Mary, a theme that does not arise from the Gospel literature but from the popular will to highlight the role of the maternal line in the human education of the Son of God, a will 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.
Aesthetically the work is largely reminiscent of the painting of Palomino (Bujalance, Cordoba, 1655 - Madrid, 1726), a painter and treatise writer who trained in Cordoba under the direction of Juan de Valdes Leal. He traveled to Madrid in 1678, and there he was introduced into the circle of Carreño de Miranda and Claudio Coello, who brought him into contact with the royal collections and gave him the opportunity to produce his first works for the court, which allowed him to obtain the title of painter to the king in 1688. The arrival of Lucas Jordán in Madrid in 1692 made him interested in the fresco technique, becoming one of the most important Spanish fresco painters of the second half of the 17th century. Between 1697 and 1701 he worked in Valencia, and in 1705 he traveled to Salamanca to carry out a religious commission. Between 1712 and 1713 he painted a series of canvases with scenes and saints related to the history of Cordoba for the cathedral, and between 1723 and 1725 he worked on what would be his last work, the decoration of the tabernacle of the Carthusian monastery of El Paular in Granada. Ordained a priest when he was widowed in 1725, he is now especially known as a writer and art theorist, thanks to his work "El museo pictórico y escala óptica" (1715-24). Palomino is widely represented in the Prado Museum, as well as in numerous Spanish churches and museums throughout Spain.