Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Schule
Engel, eine Monstranz haltend, 1635 - 1682
The inscription by a former owner attributing this drawing to Bartolome Esteban Murillo was frequent in works depicting flying cherubs. And the present allegory of the Eucharist with the monstrance borne by two such angels was a popular subject in seventeenth-century Spain, including Andalusia. Here, the attribution may indicate the drawing comes from that region and, more specifically, from Seville.
This drawing's very precise depiction of the monstrance indicates it may have been drawn from life. There are numerous and highly varied gold or silver monstrances in Andalusia's churches, and the one presented here corresponds to the style of late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century pieces, although none has been found with exactly this design. This midseventeenth-century drawing could be by one of Murillo's followers, or even by Juan de Valdés Leal, and probably dates from between 1660 and 1670. Black pencil was a common medium at that time, and here its use to achieve the figures' anatomic relations is elaborately academic. Short strokes of greater intensity and accents in specific places mark the proportions of the infants' bodies and bring movement to their clothing. There are also many devotional paintings depicting this subject, some by important painters and others by members of their workshops, as is the case here.
Manuela B. Mena Marqués