Jusepe Leonardo was born in Calatayud in 1601. He soon moved to Madrid, became a pupil of Pedro de las Cuevas and lived in his house between 1616 and 1621. In 1635, he collaborated in the decoration of the Buen Retiro Palace, where he was in constant contact with the painters and collections of the court. The influence of Velázquez can be specifically noted. His refined sensibility to colour enhances him as one of the most interesting artists of his generation. However, his career was unfortunately cut short due to madness in the mid-1640s, eventually dying in the Hospital of Zaragoza in 1656. We possess very little knowledge about this painting. We know that it was acquired for the Museo Nacional de la Trinidad in 1864 through the Royal Decree of 17 May of that same year. We also know that it was valued at 10,000 reales. When the museum was dissolved, it was transferred to the Museo del Prado.

The painting has been dated to the early 1840s, in other terms, during the period of the artist´s greatest maturity, and is undoubtedly one of his finest works. This is demonstrated by its budding dynamism, its naturalism, and its perfect execution. From an elevated point of view, the artist creates a wide perspective that results in three shots of different depths, for each of which he employs a differentiated and particularly successful treatment of light. The first group forms a kind of circumference, which, along with more intense lighting, serves to highlight the child Virgin. Thus, it emphasises Marian devotion, which was so intense in 17th-century Spain. In the middleground, Saint Anne still lays in bed. Meanwhile, in the background, Saint Joachim emerges, against a backlight, through a doorway, which becomes another source of light. This has led to the suggestion of a possible influence on Velázquez´s Las Meninas. Leonardo demonstrates his expertise as a colourist with bright, lively shades applied with thick, loose brushstrokes, without neglecting the quality of the drawing. Thus, he creates figures with well-placed foreshortenings and whose heads, of particular beauty, have been rightly highlighted and attributed to Velázquez´s influence. The artist does not dismiss either the naturalistic details that give the scene a very successful everyday-life essence. Two other works of this same period have also been attributed to the artist. One of them is a small work from the Marquess of La Almunia’s collection, which is most likely a preparatory sketch. On the contrary, the other one has a more disputed attribution (in competition with Valdés Leal), which can be found in the Monastery of El Escorial.

Esplendores de Espanha de el Greco a Velázquez, Río de Janeiro, Arte Viva, 2000, p.189