3-028-559 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"St. John and the Lamb," by Murillo, 1870. Engraving of a painting. '"Behold the Lamb of God!" (John i. 29) are the words of the Gospel illustrated in this charmingly sweet, but homely, and almost playful, child impersonation of St. John the Baptist in his Divine mission, caressing a pet lamb, typical of our Saviour; by the great naturalistic Spanish master...the lustrous, dark eyes, with their long black lashes, the dark-brown hair, the warm- toned skin, the nez retroussé, and the peculiar fulness and length of the upper lip, all indicate this little "St. John" to be of Spanish extraction. In taking his models from the nature surrounding him, Murillo never, however, degraded his art, like the Dutch painters, even in their sacred subjects, by obtrusive coarseness, vulgarity, sensuality, or brutality. This picture (which was formerly in the Salamanca Collection) has the special interest, apart from its merit, of being the painter's first, or at all events an earlier, idea for the famous picture of the same subject in our National Gallery...The picture we engrave belongs to the fine collection of Lord Dudley and Ward'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.