Spanish school; 17th century.

Spanish school; XVII century.
"Virgin of the milk".
Oil on copper.
Measurements: 19 x 14,5 cm; 24 x 20 cm (frame).
The delicacy of this work is especially appreciated in the faces of fine features of the two protagonists. This same care in the details and the elegance of the forms reaches all the aspects that compose the scene, especially the representation of the Virgin's nimbus of sanctity. The author has used a classical, pyramidal composition that focuses the viewer's attention on the delicate and tender image that develops between the Virgin and Child. A scene of absolute intimacy, which tries to transmit a common act of life both for the child of God and for the faithful who observes the work.

The representation of the Madonna suckling the child Jesus is mentioned by Pope Gregory the Great, a mosaic with this representation probably dating from the twelfth century is found on the facade of the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, although a few other examples from the early Middle Ages still survive. It is considered that this invocation may be a syncretism of the mother-goddesses, in particular of the goddess Isis suckling Horus, and probably the earliest images appeared in Coptic art. The Milk Grotto is a place in Bethlehem, very close to the Basilica of the Nativity, where tradition says that the Virgin suckled the Child, and a drop spilled on a rock, which changed its color, becoming white. Because of this, stones from the grotto (made of calcium carbonate) were considered relics in the first centuries because, when diluted in water, it took on the appearance of milk. The sanctuary erected in this place is used by women who ask the Virgin to improve the quality of their mother's milk. A theme in Christian hagiography linked to the nursing Virgin is that of Lactatio Bernardi, according to which the Virgin appeared in a dream to a monk and, by giving him some of her milk, granted him a miraculous gift.