ABSTRACT
In seventeenth-century Spain, a number of different paintings and sculptures gave visual form to the subject of the Virgin Mary’s education as a young girl. Scenes of the Presentation depict her at the age of three years, taking leave of her parents and entering the Temple of Jerusalem, where she received instruction until her betrothal to St. Joseph at the age of 14. A number of memorable paintings and sculptures represent the elderly St. Anne teaching or reading with her young daughter. While these are the two best known scenes depicting Mary’s education, several other types were produced by Spanish Golden Age artists. Four paintings by Sevillian artist Francisco de Zurbarán picture Mary as a young girl of about eight years old praying, embroidering, and reading, scenes that, I will argue, represent her childhood education. With the exception of the Presentation scene, all of these subjects seem to appear out of the blue in the early seventeenth century in Spanish art, as demonstrated by tender examples by Sevillian artists Francisco de Zurbarán, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Juan de Roelas, and Juan Martínez Montañés, and seem to enjoy popularity in Spain. Why were these scenes of Mary’s childhood commissioned and for whom? What visual and textual sources inspired artists and patrons? Are they primarily records of a novel trend in Marian devotion, or can such scenes tell us something of the lives of ordinary girls in early modern Spain?
