This surprising canvas presents the image of the Virgin of Atocha, just as she was worshipped on her altar at the Dominican convent dedicated to her on the outskirts of Madrid. This type of votive image with luxurious rigid clothing that gives the figure a conical silhouette—hence their popular characterization as “funnel” images—is very characteristic of the 17^th century and quite frequently reproduced in engravings and sometimes paintings, where they created a sort of divine trompe l’oeil in which the faithful could imagine themselves in the presence of the actual statue. In 1669, Carreño had painted such an image of the Virgin of Almudena, which was then installed at the Hospital de la Piedad (Charity Hospital) in Benavente, Zamora. It therefore seems clear that he cultivated this genre on more than one occasion, including another surviving work: his Crucified Christ (P5174).

The fact that the artist signed this work as “Chamber Painter” helps to date it from after 1671, which makes it a painting from his mature period, probably for royal use. Among the works listed in the 1734 palace inventory as having been saved from the fire is “a painting two-and-a-half rods high by one-and-a-third wide, carved and gilded frame, of the Virgin of Atocha, by Juan Carreño’s hand.” In 1747, it appears in Philip V’s will, with an appraised value of 1,200 Reals. At that time, it was in the second bedroom at the Archbishop’s Place, along with many other canvases rescued from the fire. After that, it no longer appears in the royal inventories. Rather than returning to the Palace, it was probably placed in a church or other religious building, as it entered the Museo del Prado from the Museo de la Trinidad, where its inventory number had been 1058.