Italian school; 17th century.

Italian school; XVII century.
"The Education of the Virgin".
Oil on canvas.
It has frame of the nineteenth century.
Measurements: 68 x 68 cm; 89 x 89 cm (frame).
In the center of the scene a majestic woman is observed that, with one of her hands, holds a bundle, while with the other one picks up a small kneeling girl, whose gesture denotes prayer. In the background, an elderly seated figure observes the scene as a passive spectator. These attitudes suggest that it is a representation of the education of the Virgin. However, the work distances itself aesthetically from the usual representations by presenting a stage of theatrical character, dominated by a monumental architecture that opens to an exterior of great depth.
Iconographically, it is not a theme that does not arise from 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 sixteenth century, since then the book appears as an attribute of St. 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, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the cycles of the Virgin's life, one of whose scenes is the one concerning 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.