Seated Christ-child

• CE00190
• 1576-1600
• Wood: Carved - Gilded - Painted

This small sculpture depicts an iconography of Christ-child with symbols of the Passion, common in the Hispanic kingdoms. But this is a specially old depiction, showing the child asleep, tired afer having meditated on the Passion symbol. There are at least five other similar examples, with the children dressed in a manner close to the times of Phillip II. The Museo del Greco's example follows those other sculptures, but a a slightly lesser quality.

Among them there are certain differences, mostly on the attributes they are holding: a cross, a skull, or a sphere of the World, but also on their clothes. The Museum's sculpture has a closed, long-sleeved garb, but does not have the over-cloth of the other childs. It seems to have lost the cross he held in his left hand, and also lacks the ribbon with a pendant found in the other sculptures. These images can be dated to the last third of the 17th century.

Due to the places where three of this seated childs are keep (Santo Domingo el Real, the Descalzas Reales and the convent of San Juan de Jerusalén in Zamora) they probably had a courtly origin: these sculptures might have been a gift to royal women about to enter a convent. Afterwards the iconography spread, being done with lesser qualities.