Juan Carreño de Miranda, The Visitation
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles · Digital image courtesy of Getty's Open Content ProgramView original →
Juan Carreño de Miranda

The Visitation

about 1655–1660

Current Collection

J. Paul Getty Museum

Los Angeles, United States

Medium
Pen and brown ink and brush and gray wash over black chalk, heightened with white opaque watercolor (recto); black chalk (verso), on blue paper (now discolored)
Dimensions
24.8 × 23.7 cm
Status
In Museum Collection
Collect24 Art ID
C24-197916

Two cousins share in a moment of mutual happiness in this scene of rejoicing. The Virgin Mary rushes up the steps to congratulate her elderly cousin Saint Elizabeth, placing her left hand on Elizabeth's shoulder and clasping the other. Both women celebrate their respective pregnancies, the Virgin with the infant Jesus and Elizabeth with John the Baptist. Elizabeth had particular cause for celebration as she had conceived in old age, after a lifetime of barrenness. Juan Carreño de Miranda conveyed the scene thorough energetic motion and nervous handling of the pen. Vigorous strokes describe the flowing outline of the Virgin's cloak, while summary passages of wash in gray-brown define Elizabeth's head and back. Amid the swirling mass of lines on the left several indistinct heads are visible. Another mother crouches at the foot of the steps, holding a baby in her arms.

Provenance

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Registry history

  • about 1655–1660 — Recorded in the collection of J. Paul Getty Museum — drawings

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