The Virgin Teaching the Christ Child to Read 1660-99
Oil on canvas | 74.8 x 58.4 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 402611
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The infant Christ stands on a cloth in the foreground holding a book. The Virgin Mary supports him from behind, pointing with a finger of her right hand at a page of the book. The painting possibly derives from an early composition by Guercino, now lost, which was captured in reverse in an etching by Matteo Loves. The painting was first recorded in the Royal Collection in 1700, indicating that it is of some age, and might have been executed by an artist in the circle of Cignani. There is another copy of the Guercino by an unknown artist in The North of England Open Air Museum, Beamish.
The painting appears in Pyne's illustrated Royal Residences of 1819, hanging in the King's Dressing Room at Windsor Castle (RCIN 922105).Provenance
First recorded in the King’s private apartments at Hampton Court in 1700 (no 4); in the Closet below stairs at Hampton Court throughout the 18th Century aparently hung as a pair with RCIN 403985; both paintings moved to Windsor in 1805 and recorded there in the King's Closet (also called Dressing Room) in 1813 and 1819
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Creator(s)
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
74.8 x 58.4 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
87.4 x 70.2 cm (frame, external)