Italian school; 17th century.

Italian school; 17th century.
"The Circumcision of Jesus".
Oil on slate.
It presents Repainting, restorations in the pictorial surface and consolidated fracture.
Measurements: 54 x 33,5 cm.
In studied symmetry the characters are distributed in this composition of biblical theme. The small body of the Child Jesus occupies the physical and symbolic center, and to him all glances converge, or rather, the gestures and even the vanishing point through which the whole scene is structured. A priest holds the child. Joseph and Mary observe the sacred scene, situated in the right zone with respect to the priest. The Virgin on her knees holding her baby and St. Joseph, in the background, standing with his hand on his chest, showing both as parents distressed by the situation their son is going through, gestures that bring humanity to the protagonists of the Holy Family. The precision of the drawing welcomes rich color ranges, to which the light gives silvery shades, bringing us closer to an image in which the author gives prominence to the spatial conception, a feature that can be seen not only in the play of different planes, but also in the way in which the table is placed and the space left in the background,
It is the Evangelist Luke who narrates this episode (2, 21), being a common iconographic theme throughout the Christian tradition, and which precedes the Presentation of the Child in the Temple. The art is helped by the information provided by the Apocryphal Gospels (Pseudo-Matthew, Arabic Gospel of the infancy, mainly) to add details to the theme that, in Are, is shown since the end of the 10th century, usually forming part of the Cycle of Mary or of Christ.