Virgen de las Cuevas

This painting of Our Lady of the Caves (Virgen de las Cuevas), dated around 1650 and now in the Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla, depicts a Marian devotion particular to the Carthusian monastery of Santa María de las Cuevas in Seville, where Zurbarán had earlier executed major commissions. Zurbarán's austere, powerfully meditative style—white-robed monks in intense chiaroscuro, saints presented against dark backgrounds with sculptural solidity—made him the ideal painter for the Counter-Reformation religious orders of Extremadura and Seville.

The Virgin shelters Carthusian monks beneath her outspread mantle, a composition type known as the Schutzmantelmadonna. The white habits of the monks create a geometric pattern beneath the deep blue of Mary's cloak.