The penultimate room in this exhibition at the National Gallery focusses on Zurbarán‘s still lives (as well as those of his son), showing how they were also used as references within other paintings.
This small painting is from the National Gallery’s own collection. It could have been an individual piece or a section of a larger piece. Both cup with water and rose denote the Virgin’s purity: a thornless rose symbolises the Immaculate Conception.
You see it popping up in other works such as the still life below
and in the Family of the Virgin.
These images have their own quiet beauty and it’s interesting to see where pots, baskets etc. appear in larger paintings
