The scene is dominated by two women, the real focus of the painting. Arranged in the foreground, slightly to the left, they take up practically the entire height of the painting. Their two well-illuminated figures stand out against the stone wall behind them, which further highlights their monumental stature. Saint Elizabeth, the old woman on the left as we look, is portrayed in a gold cloak, dark robe and white veil, her left hand pressed to her bosom while her right hand is clasping that of her cousin. Maíno has put the Virgin Mary just next to her, dominating the painting on its central axis, her face lit up and resplendent. She is looking intently into Elizabeth’s eyes with a look full of tenderness. She also wears a dark cloak and her robe is of a deep red, a colour that is characteristic of our artist, along with a semi-transparent veil pulling her hair back, itself also pushed back slightly so we can see her whole face. Behing them and to the right, on a secondary level we can spot Zechariah, the old man seen in profile with white hair and beard, and Saint Joseph, a young man with black hair and beard, carrying a pilgrim’s staff or walking stick in his right hand while listening carefully to old Zechariah. Finally, behind the two male figures and just above their heads, Maíno has inserted an open space with a fragment of blue sky broken up by little clouds and a simple architectural backdrop evoking El Escorial or, more specifically, the Temple of Solomon as imagined by the Jesuit Juan Bautista de Villalpando in his Treatise on Perfect Architecture according to the vision of the prophet Ezekiel.

read CATALOGUE