This scene from the life of Saint Bernard depicts the Virgin Mary’s apparition to the Cistercian monk and the miraculous milk he received from her breasts as thanks for his devotion. He is accompanied by his customary iconographic symbols: an abbot’s staff, the bishop’s miter that he rejected, and books alluding to the texts he dedicated to Mary. This work was originally the central panel of one of the altarpieces at the Monastery of San Martín de Valdeiglesias, Madrid. The Virgin Appears to Saint Bernard draws on a version of the altarpiece Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Bernard, which Antonio Comontes made for the parish of Saint Andrew in Toledo. In the present work by Correa, the scene is set outdoors with agreeable vegetation and notable Renaissance architecture. Both the temple in the background and the low wall directly behind the kneeling saint differ from the architecture in Comontes’ version, which is more straightforward and characteristic of works from Toledo. Correa’s painting also presents a sort of small altar on which the abbot’s staff and two books rest. These may allude to one of those that the saint dedicated to Mary’s virginity, such as De laudibus Virginis. Saint Bernard’s fervent devotion to the Virgin was precisely rewarded with this celestial apparition in which he was further honored with the miraculous opportunity to taste a few drops of the milk with which she nursed the Christ Child. The entire work has been painted with very refined colors, especially the saint’s head, which is in rigorous profile and conceived with precise drawing and a delicate pictorial treatment that conveys the image of this saint that had persisted since the middle ages: a man with smooth and handsome features (Text drawn from Ruiz, L.: Juan Correa de Vivar, c. 1510-1566. Maestro del Renacimiento español, 2010).