Andalusian school; beginning of the XVIII century.

Andalusian School; early eighteenth century.
"Infant Jesus with attributes of the Passion".
Oil on canvas.
Presents restorations.
Measurements: 76 x 53 cm.
In this painting Jesus is represented as an innocent child, carrying the instruments of his future martyrdom and wearing a blue tunic alluding to the universality of the Christian message and the concepts of peace and purity. In a rugged landscape the Child, crowned with thorns, looks up to heaven in a prayerful manner. Christian art took delight throughout its history, and especially in the Modern Age, in projecting the innocent infancy of Jesus next to the representation of the cross.
The contrast between the happy unconcern of a child and the horror of the sacrifice to which he was predestined was designed to move hearts. This idea was already familiar to the theologians of the Middle Ages, but the artists of the time expressed it discreetly, either through the worried expression of the Virgin, or through the bunch of grapes that the Child squeezes in his hands. It was especially in the art of the Counter-Reformation that this funeral presentiment of the Passion was expressed by means of transparent allusions. Zurbarán shows the Infant Jesus pricking himself with his finger while braiding a crown of thorns. Murillo, the little St. John the Baptist showing him his cross of reeds. Finally, the theme finds its most poignant expression in the theme of the Infant Jesus Sleeping on a cross. Here Jesus is not presented as a baby, but as a somewhat older child, looking directly at us, fully aware of his destiny, and in fact carrying it voluntarily, as a burden he accepts on behalf of humanity.