According to medieval legend, as a girl the Virgin Mary lived in the Temple in Jerusalem, where she devoted herself to praying and sewing vestments, the subject of Zurbarán's painting, executed about 1632–33.
According to the Protoevangelium of James (7:1–8:1), the Virgin was brought to the Temple at the age of three and reared there. Pseudo-Matthew, in another apocryphal text elaborated on this story, adding that, "she applied herself so to working the wool, and even what aged women could not contrive to do she at such a tender age succeeded in" (see Ref. Baticle 1987, p. 256). The present picture is one of three variants ascribed to Zurbarán depicting the young Virgin who has interrupted her sewing to pray. A painting in a private collection, Florence, showing the Virgin in a very similar attitude, includes the figures of Joachim and Anna, and is usually dated somewhat earlier than ours. A third picture (Hermitage, St. Petersburg) which is compositionally quite different, shows a three-quarter view of the child Mary seated, also at prayer with sewing in her lap. This picture, which does not include the numerous still-life elements of the other two versions, is most often considered the latest of the three. A painting formerly in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (and coll. José de Madrazo in 1856, see cat. Madrazo, 1856, no. 447), and a related picture sold at Christie's, London, June 26, 1970, lot 62, appear to be weak copies of our picture. Neither painting includes the small table at the Virgin's left. What may be a third copy of our composition is mentioned in Ref. Torres Martín, 1963, in the Renart collection, Barcelona. The painting of the Young Virgin in the collection of the Count of Montenegro, Palma de Mallorca, in 1845 (see J.M. Bover, Noticia...de los museos del...Cardenal Despuig existentes en Mallorca, 1845, p. 151, no. 44) may be our picture, but could also be the painting formerly in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
Aureliano de Beruete, Madrid (until d. 1911); Aureliano de Beruete y Moret, Madrid (1911–d. 1922; his estate 1922–at least 1923); [Dario de Regoyos, Madrid, until 1927; sold to MMA]
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Exhibition of Spanish Paintings," November 1920–January 1921, no. 55.
Detroit Institute of Arts. "Thirty-Eight Great Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 2–October 28, 1951, no catalogue.
Art Gallery of Toronto. "Thirty-Eight Great Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 14–December 12, 1951, no catalogue.
Seattle Art Museum. "Thirty-Eight Great Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," March 1–June 30, 1952, no catalogue.
City Art Museum of St. Louis. "Thirty-Eight Great Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 6–February 4, 1952, no catalogue.
Austin, Tex. City Coliseum. "Texas Fine Arts Festival: Metropolitan Museum $1,000,000 Collection of Old Masters," April 18–26, 1953, unnum. checklist.
Milwaukee Auditorium. "Metropolitan Art Museum $1,000,000 Masterpiece Exhibition," March 7–14, 1953, unnumbered cat.
Madrid. Casón del Buen Retiro. "Zurbarán en el III centenario de su muerte," November 1964–February 1965, no. 22.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Masterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 16–November 1, 1970, unnumbered cat.
Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. State Hermitage Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," May 22–July 27, 1975, no. 30.
Moscow. State Pushkin Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," August 28–November 2, 1975, no. 30.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Zurbarán," September 22–December 13, 1987, no. 47.
Madrid. Museo Nacional del Prado. "Zurbarán," May 3–July 30, 1988, no. 87.
Paris. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. "Zurbarán," January 14–April 11, 1988, no. 47.
Athens. National Gallery Alexandros Soutzos Museum. "From El Greco to Cézanne: Masterpieces of European Painting from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," December 13, 1992–April 11, 1993, no. 23.
José Cascales y Muñoz. Francisco de Zurbarán: Su época, su vida y sus obras. Madrid, 1911, pp. 33, 93, 171–73, ill.
August L. Mayer. Die sevillaner Malerschule. Leipzig, 1911, p. 158.
Hugo Kehrer. Francisco de Zurbarán. Munich, 1918, pp. 64–65, 146, pl. 54.
Exhibition of Spanish Paintings. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts. London, 1920, pp. 44–45, no. 55; plate vol., pl. 55.
August L. Mayer. Geschichte der spanischen Malerei. Leipzig, 1922, p. 321.
Valerian von Loga. Die Malerei in Spanien vom XIV. bis XVIII. Jahrhundert. Berlin, 1923, p. 267.
August L. Mayer. "The Education of the Virgin, by Zurbarán." Burlington Magazine 44 (January–June 1924), p. 212.
The Old Spanish Masters from the Contini-Bonacossi Collection. Exh. cat., Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna. Rome, 1930, p. 39.
"New Painting by Zurbarán Acquired." Bulletin of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts 27 (October 1, 1938), p. 123.
Harry B. Wehle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Italian, Spanish, and Byzantine Paintings. New York, 1940, pp. 234–35, ill.
José Gudiol. Spanish Painting. Exh. cat., Toledo Museum of Art. Toledo, 1941, p. 107.
Martin Soria. "Francisco de Zurbarán: A Study of His Style I." Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 25 (January 1944), p. 45, fig. 7.
H.P.G. Seckel. "Francisco de Zurbarán as a Painter of Still Life." Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 30 (1946), pp. 292–95, figs. 13–15 (whole and details).
Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño. Zurbarán. Barcelona, 1948, pp. 44, no. 43, 72, ill. opp. p. 72 (detail).
Francisco Pompey. Zurbarán: Su vida y sus obras. Madrid, 1948, pp. 45, 49–53, ill.
Martin S. Soria. The Paintings of Zurbarán. London, 1953, pp. 2, 22, 148, no. 67, pl. 39.
Fabrizio Clerici. "The Grand Illusion." Art News Annual 23 (1954), p. 125, ill. p. 178.
Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño. La pintura española fuera de España. Madrid, 1958, p. 338, no. 3009.
Enriqueta Harris. "Velázquez en Roma." Archivo español de arte 31 (July–September 1958), p. 209, pl. 8 (detail).
Paul Guinard. Zurbarán et les peintres espagnols de la vie monastique. Paris, 1960, pp. 139, opp. pl. 84, p. 212, no. 23, pl. 85.
Ramón Torres Martín. Zurbarán: El pintor gótico del siglo XVII. Seville, 1963, unpaginated, no. 55, ill.
Consuelo Sanz-Pastor in Exposición Zurbarán en el III centenario de su muerte. Exh. cat., Casón del Buen Retiro. [Madrid], [1964], pp. 28, 119–20, no. 22, ill. (whole and detail).
José Camón Aznar. "Casi todo Zurbarán." Goya (January–April 1965), p. 320.
Julián Gállego. "El color en Zurbarán." Goya (January–April 1965), p. 298.
Diego Angulo Íñiguez. "Pintura del siglo XVII." Ars hispaniae: Historia universal del arte hispánico. 15, Madrid, 1971, pp. 119, 134.
Pierre Descargues. Art Treasures of the Hermitage. New York, [1972], p. 114.
Tiziana Frati. L'opera completa di Zurbarán. Milan, 1973, pp. 91, no. 67, 114, colorpl. XVI.
Jonathan Brown. Francisco de Zurbarán. New York, [1974], pp. 17, 94–97, colorpls. 18–19 (whole and detail).
Edward J. Sullivan in Master Paintings from The Hermitage and The State Russian Museum. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. New York, 1975, p. 60.
José Gudiol in Julián Gállego and José Gudiol. Zurbarán, 1598–1664. New York, 1977, pp. 39, 46–49, 51, 55–57, 59–60, 67, 94, no. 214, fig. 230 (color).
Marcus B. Burke in Spain and New Spain: Mexican Colonial Arts in their European Context. Exh. cat., Art Museum of South Texas. Corpus Christi, Tex., 1979, p. 25.
Howard Hibbard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1980, pp. 313, 329, fig. 563 (color).
José de Mesa and Teresa Gisbert. Historia de la pintura cuzqueña. Lima, 1982, p. 305.
Enrique Valdivieso. Historia de la pintura sevillana: Siglos XIII al XX. Seville, 1986, p. 181.
Jeannine Baticle et. al. Zurbarán. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1987, pp. 255–58, 260, 287, no. 47, ill. (color).
Santiago Alcolea. Zurbarán. Barcelona, 1989, p. 16, colorpl. 55.
Norman Bryson. Looking at the Overlooked: Four Essays on Still Life Painting. Cambridge, Mass., 1990, pp. 75–76, ill. (whole and detail).
Deborah Krohn et al. in From El Greco to Cézanne: Masterpieces of European Painting from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Exh. cat., National Gallery Alexandros Soutzos Museum. Athens, 1992, p. 307, no. 23, ill. (color) [catalogue section unpaginated].
Rocío Izquierdo in Da Velázquez a Murillo: Il "siglo de oro" in Andalusia. Exh. cat.Milan, 1993, p. 92.
John Moffitt. "Mary as a "Prophetic Seamstress" in Siglo de Oro Sevillian Painting." Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 54 (1993), pp. 147–50, 153, 155–56, fig. 3.
María Luisa Caturla. Francisco de Zurbarán. Paris, 1994, pp. 100, 108 n. 102.
Julián Gállego. Visión y símbolos en la pintura española del Siglo de Oro. 4th ed. Madrid, 1996, p. 214.
Claudie Ressort in The Dictionary of Art. 33, New York, 1996, p. 730.
Francisco J. Cornejo. "Zurbarán y el teatro sevillano de su época." Actas del Simposium Internacional, Zurbarán y su época: Fuente de Cantos, Llerena, Guadalupe. Mérida, 1998, pp. 102–3, ill.
Arsenio Moreno. Zurbarán. Madrid, 1998, p. 45.
Benito Navarrete Prieto. Zurbarán ante su centenario [1598–1998]. Valladolid, 1998, pp. 118–19, ill.
Benito Navarrete Prieto in Zurbarán al Museu Nacional D'Art de Catalunya. Barcelona, 1998, pp. 26, 136, 239.
Benito Navarrete Prieto et. al. Zurbarán y su obrador. Exh. cat., Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia. Valencia, 1998, pp. 170, 172–74, no. 33, ill. (color).
Enrique Valdivieso. "Zurbarán: Problèmes de chronologie et de style." Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 132 (1998), p. 191.
Enrique Valdivieso. Zurbaran: IV centenario. Exh. cat., Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla. Seville, 1998, pp. 174–75, no. 54, ill. (color).
Francisco de Zurbarán, 1598–1664. Exh. cat.Granada, 1999, pp. 163–64, 168, ill. (color).
Odile Delenda in Zurbarán: La obra final: 1650–1664. Exh. cat., Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. Bilbao, 2000, pp. 24–25, 111, ill. (color).
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