ATTRIBUTED TO GIOVANNI BATTISTA MORELLI (D. 1669), MADRID OR VALENCIA, CIRCA 1660

Known traditionally as Algardi's disciple, Giovanni Battista Morelli began his career in Rome where he is known primarily for the relief of Adam and Eve’s Expulsion from Paradise in the central nave of the Basilica of St. John Lateran. He moved to Valencia in 1659, where he was introduced to Philip IV's court through Velazquez, whom he had met in Rome. Morelli sent the latter some terracotta sculptures and in 1664 he was named sculptor of the Royal household. He established himself in Aranjuez and carried out restorations and commissions for different works in stucco in the palace (partly lost).
The figure of the Virgin, modelled with a sweet and melancholic expression, can be directly linked to Morelli’s figure of Innocence in St. Peter's in the Vatican. The way the Virgin supports the child with the hand extended over her body appears again in the figure of Charity in the ceiling of the King's Chamber in the Palace of Aranjuez. The round faces, large foreheads, pinched noses and voluminous hair of the cherubs are very similar to those in Algardi's design for the frieze in the church of St. Ignatius in Rome, as well as the terracotta figure of the Infant St John the Baptist in the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. The loosely sketched clouds in the landscape background are also comparable to those in the Expulsion from Paradise of St. John in Lateran, Rome.