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Christ’s prayer on the Mount of Olives is the gospel episode that precedes his arrest and the beginning of his Passion and death on the cross. After the last supper with his disciples, Jesus withdraws with three of them, Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, to the nearby garden of Gethsemane. According to St Luke’s Gospel, he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled
In this picture in the Prado, Morales combines elements that allude to both moments, -the Presentation in the Temple and the Purification of the Virgin-, although it might appear at first that he inclines towards the Purification, since only the group formed by the Holy Family and the priest Simeon, together with the two young pigeons carried by the woman in the foreground, are taken from the Gosp
These works (P7948 and P944) embody a more decorous variation of the breastfeeding Madonna, a reference to the succour afforded by the Virgin to all believers. Morales designed a composition which avoids both the representation of Mary’s nude breast and explicit lactation. With both hands, Mary holds a Child who seeks maternal consolation, lifting the veil with one hand and touching the modestly c
Jesus is shown half-length, crowned with thorns and with a haggard face, parted lips, prominent cheekbones, and moist eyes raised in an attitude of submission to the divine will. His hair, beard, moustache and eyelashes are minutely rendered in a light brown colour. Similarly detailed is the treatment of the tears and drops of blood. The latter, caused by the thorns piercing his forehead and the w
These works (P944 and P7948) embody a more decorous variation of the breastfeeding Madonna, a reference to the succour afforded by the Virgin to all believers. Morales designed a composition which avoids both the representation of Mary’s nude breast and explicit lactation. With both hands, Mary holds a Child who seeks maternal consolation, lifting the veil with one hand and touching the modestly c
In this presentation of the Virgin breastfeeding the Christ Child, Morales discreetly avoids showing her naked breast, in line with his habitual practice. Through the restlessness of the Christ Child, seen from behind as he seeks his mother’s consoling breast, and Mary’s pensive expression the artist suggests the infant’s redemptive fate.
This work is an example of an exceptional iconography within the subject matter habitually dedicated to the Passion by the painter, and even within that of the European art of his time as a whole. Although his most frequent subjects were the traditional ones of the Ecce Homo (alone or accompanied by executioners, by Pontius Pilate and an executioner, or by the Virgin and St John), Christ at the Co
In a single sequence, the painting shows the Archangel Gabriel’s greeting to Mary, his announce ment to her that she has been designated as the mother of the son of God, and her acceptance of the divine will (Luke, 1, 26-38). St Gabriel appears on the viewer’s left, kneeling before the Virgin. He is covered in a white tunic constructed with a rich array of solidly drawn folds interspersed with a s
This is one of Morales’s most characteristic and best-known paintings, both because of its technical quality, its domestic format and its apparently tender and heartwarming subject, and also because it is one of the works by the painter that have been exhibited continuously ever since first entering the Prado. It joined the Museum’s holdings in 1916 after the Royal Board of Trustees had accepted t
The Virgin Mary, turned slightly to the right, has her hands clasped in an imploring attitude, her gaze absent and her eyes flooded with tears. She wears a bluish-green robe, a violet tunic and a white coif. The iconography of the Mater Dolorosa does not appear in the gospels, but is a creation that emerges from the exaltation of pathos at the end of the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, the episode alwa
It is not known when or how these two paintings -Saint Juan de Ribera and Saint John the Baptist (P950)- came to be the property of Luisa Enríquez, but their common provenance has never been seen as an indication of a link with the same group of art works. However, the technical study that was recently carried out on the two panels shows that they are directly and unequivocally related in t
It is not known when or how these two paintings -Saint John the Baptist and Saint Juan de Ribera (P947)- came to be the property of Luisa Enríquez, but their common provenance has never been seen as an indication of a link with the same group of art works. However, the technical study that was recently carried out on the two panels shows that they are directly and unequivocally related in t
The dimensions, format, theme, support and pictorial style of these three works -The Crucifixion (P8211), Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Museo de Salamanca, CE 106) and The Resurrection (P8212)- all point towards a common provenance, an altarpiece with traditional subject matter linked to the Christological cycle, with special emphasis on the episodes related to the Passion, the death of Christ
The dimensions, format, theme, support and pictorial style of these three works -The Crucifixion (P8211), Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Museo de Salamanca, CE 106) and The Resurrection (P8212)- all point towards a common provenance, an altarpiece with traditional subject matter linked to the Christological cycle, with special emphasis on the episodes related to the Passion, the death of Christ
The Birth of the Virgin at the Museo del Prado, the only painting on this subject by the hand of Luis de Morales and a work that remained unpublished until 2003, and the two pieces at the Museum Schloss Fasanerie in Eichenzell, The Presentation in the Temple and The Visitation, which are little known in Spain, belong in all probability, as Gabriele Finaldi pointed out, to one and the same set, a j
Large-format versions of the Virgin holding the dead body of Christ, like those at Badajoz Cathedral and at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, gave way in Morales’s oeuvre to smaller compositions on the same subject, with half-length figures shown on a striking background of rigorous black. Against this, the two figures and the upright of the cross are contrasted with strong lighti
It is extremely likely that these two panels, -The Adoration of the Magi and The Adoration of the Shepherds-, similar in format, measurements and style, belonged to the predella of the same altarpiece, since both have the usual configuration of paintings destined for this type of placement, and the compositional design in each case displays similarities in the size and arrangement of the figures a
It is extremely likely that these two panels, -The Adoration of the Shepherds and The Adoration of the Magi-, similar in format, measurements and style, belonged to the predella of the same altarpiece, since both have the usual configuration of paintings destined for this type of placement, and the compositional design in each case displays similarities in the size and arrangement of the figures a
