La educación de la Virgen María [The Education of the Virgin Mary]

The young Virgin Mary appears in this painting reading a book while accompanied by her parents, Anne and Joachim. Anne’s cape is beautifully depicted as a floral brocade, the richest of all fabrics within the composition. Scholars continue to debate whether this visual theme encouraged women’s literacy or if, on the contrary, was meant to illustrate that learning was only for the very few who, like the young Mary, were graced by the divine light of the Holy Spirit, here represented by the white dove.