Miguel Gonzalez - After Bartolomé Esteban Murillo - Children of the Shell
Miguel Gonzalez, after Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1618-1682), Spanish
Children of the Shell, undated copy
OIL ON CANVAS, 25 x 29 ½ inches
Gift of Mrs. Theodora Willard Best
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo's depictions of children were particularly admired for their subjects' precocious gestures and for their sentimental quality. In Children of the Shell of 1670, now in the collection of the Prado Museum in Madrid, the infant Christ offers water to an equally young John the Baptist. By rendering the biblical figures as children, a popular trope that originated in Italian art, Murillo is better able to humanize his subject and elicit the viewer's sympathy.