Granada School; beginning of the 18th century.

Granada School; early eighteenth century.
"Infant Jesus with the attributes of the Passion".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Measurements: 83 x 60 cm.
In this painting Jesus is represented as an infant whose tender body radiates heavenly light. He carries the instruments of his future martyrdom, holding a basket with nails in one hand and carrying the cross on his back with the other. The Divine Infant was a very popular typology throughout the 17th century. 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 that 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.