Die heiligen Kinder mit der Muschel

Murillo painted this in Seville around 1670, at the height of his fame for exactly this kind of tender religious scene. Two small boys play together in a landscape. One, in a soft red robe, is the Christ Child, and he leans down to give a scallop shell of water to the other, the infant John the Baptist, dressed in rough brown. The lamb beside them and the little reed cross mark John out, and a ribbon on the cross carries the words ecce agnus dei, behold the lamb of God. Murillo's whole idea is to fold a solemn Christian message into something any parent would recognize, two children sharing a drink with a pet nearby. The picture was so loved that it was copied endlessly onto prints and plates.