Virgin and Child - Naples late 18th century

Antique oil on canvas painting representing the Virgin and the Sleeping Child with gilded and carved wooden frame.

Mary is represented according to the classical iconography, that is to say, determined to read a book while holding Jesus in her arms.

Mary is reading, in the full sense of the word: she is listening, meditating, memorizing, scrutinizing, understanding, praying, tuning in, contemplating and thus preparing herself to receive each message that comes to her from the Word she is reading and in the time she is reading.

In Mary, prophecy and fulfillment are superimposed and coincide: proclamation and reality meet.

By her example and her behavior, Mary teaches us to read. Jesus, book and reader, shows us God by reading God.

Jesus holds an apple in his hand, the fruit of Good and Evil, symbol of Original Sin and therefore of his expiatory Passion; Mary has a pensive and melancholic look which implies the prefiguration of the tragic destiny of the Son.

The splendid finish and the refined colors, obviously of the highest level, suggest in fact the attribution to a very talented author working in Naples in the second half of the eighteenth century.

Condition: Excellent condition.

Measures: 65x78cm.

Provenance: Naples, late 18th century.