MADRID.- The Prado Museum features the exhibition of The Apparition of the Virgin to Saint Bernard (around 1660). Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the famous French reformer of the Cistercian Order, was born in 1090. He studied at the University of Paris and later entered the Cistercian Abbey of Citeaux. Together with two followers in 1115 he founded the monastery at Clairvaux (clara vallis, meaning clear valley), of which he was abbot until his death in 1153. Saint Bernard was canonised in 1174.

Saint Bernard was one of the most outstanding spiritual leaders in Europe in his day and was also known for his particular promotion of the cult of the Virgin, to whom he was notably devoted and about whom he wrote numerous texts. According to The Golden Legend, a compilation of texts of saints' lives and miracles written in the 13th century by the Genoese Dominican monk Jacopo de Voragine, Mary appeared to Bernard on various occasions to give him her thanks and blessings.

In one of these visions, depicted here by Murillo, the saint was praying before a statue of the Virgin and Child when it came to life before his eyes. A fine stream of milk spurted from one of the Virgin's breasts and fell on the saint's lips, which were dry from reciting so many devotions to her. Strangely, this miracle is not recorded in The Golden Legend, but is mentioned for the first time in a 14th-century text, possibly as a metaphor alluding to the eloquence, "as sweet as milk", of Saint Bernard, who is referred to for this reason as "Doctor Melifluo" (the Virgin's milk here has the same sweetening power as honey).

Murillo reduces the scene to its essential elements, focusing on the two main figures who are depicted with great monumentality. The Virgin and the saint are represented in clearly differentiated zones. On the right we see the Virgin standing on the clouds with the Christ Child in her arms. She is located before a glowing background of orange tones filled with little angels in a spectacular "cloud of glory". Her blue mantel billows out in a notably Baroque manner while the pink tones of her gown are also particularly fine.

The left area of the canvas has strongly contrasting effects of light and shade. Here we see the saint, kneeling and wearing the ample habit of the Cistercian Order, brilliantly painted by the artist. He prepares to receive the fine stream of milk as it spouts from the Virgin's breast. Behind him is a bookcase and his desk with a book, an inkwell and a vase of white lilies symbolising the purity of his life. The crozier with a white veil tied to it in the foreground refers to his role as abbot of the monastery.

To date no information has come to light as to when this canvas was executed, nor the identity of the sitter or the place for which it was intended. The first documentary reference dates from 1746 when it is recorded in the inventory of the Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso (Segovia) among the paintings belonging to Isabella Farnese. Between 1794 and 1810 it was in the Palacio Real in Madrid, then entered the Museo del Prado in 1819.