Luis de Morales Furniture

LUIS DE MORALES (Spain, 1512-1586). The Virgin with a book, the Sleeping Child and Saint John. Oil on panel. Altarpiece with relics may be related to The Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. Published: Mateo Gómez, Isabel. Revista de Estudios Extremeños, 2018, Tomo LXXIV, Nº. II, pp. 1115-1128. Table with the Virgin of a little more than half body, sitting on a bench and leaning on a table, reading with the sleeping child on her lap; on the right, a Saint John appears from behind the bench and puts a finger to his mouth asking for silence so as not to disturb Jesus' sleep. The oil is framed by a reliquary altar in ebony wood: flanked by two fluted columns with Corinthian capital and based, located on a base with the relics (read their signs from left to right, they host those of San Silvestre, San Felipe Apóstol, San Felipe Neri, San Antonio Abad, Santa María Magdalena, Santo Sepulcro de Nuestro Señor and Santa Clara) on canvas and framed by ovals with silver rings; the upper end is decorated, in the frieze and top of the tympanum, with silver ovals with colored agates, and topped by pinnacles with bronze balls. Isabel Mateo has analyzed both elements: the table was painted by Luis de Morales, nicknamed "the Divine" (Badajoz, h. 1510-1586), and places it in the last stage of the painter, created for private devotion. In his analysis he highlights the similarities with other works of the painter: "Virgin with the Child and the Holy Juanes" of the parish church of Valencia de Alcántara (Cáceres) dated between 1550-1560; the “Virgins with hats” from the Abelló Collection and the Prado Museum in Madrid; etc. Furthermore, he refers to the flamenco iconographic influences and Rafael's models in Morales' work, among others. As for the reliquary, added later to the completion of the painting, it relates it to El Escorial and Felipe II...