Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

A study after the painting in the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes, Seville.
Murillo was Seville's most successful artist during the seventeenth century. His largest commission was the pictorial decoration for the chapel of the Capuchinos de Sevilla. This drawing is a preparatory study for a painting of St. Felix of Cantalice, formerly on a side altar of that church. Felix was a member and patron of the Capuchins, an independent order of Franciscans; he was visited by the Virgin and Child as a reward for his charitable work. In this drawing, the artist explored the configuration of the kneeling saint and squirming Christ child, while the bread and setting are sparingly executed. --Exhibition Label, from "Visions and Nightmares: Four Centuries of Spanish Drawings"