Scientific analysis of the painting has revealed that under the face of the Virgin Mary is a drawing, which reveals the artist’s patient search for the ideal of beauty; some hypothesize that the female model of that face could be Jerónima de las Cuevas, the only true love of El Greco. In any case, El Greco's search for perfect harmony is evident in the depiction, which is intended to make visible how the person of Mary of Nazareth is the result of the work of salvation accomplished by God, the first miracle of Christ, a concrete example of how the human being can become a masterpiece of profound spiritual beauty if he or she fully joins his or her life to that of the incarnate Son of God.
The male figure next to Mary is Saint Joseph, accurately represented without signs of excessive aging – a tradition which often appears in Christian art due to the influence of apocryphal literature. Joseph caresses the little foot of the Child Jesus, in a gesture that expresses tenderness but also underlines the experience of the Incarnation: the son generated by his virgin bride, whom he knows he did not physically father, is not some ethereal apparition or a celestial being, but a true human person, endowed with sensitive flesh like ours, mysteriously formed in the womb of that woman through the miraculous intervention of the Holy Spirit. Joseph seems to look with delicate admiration at his wife, like a good, loving husband who has esteem for his wife and as a man of deep faith who praises God in his heart for the stupendous miracle he has accomplished within their marriage and in their lives.
Next to Mary there is also a female figure, considered to be Saint Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary, and the grandmother of Jesus. She caresses the head of Christ, with the same mixture of affection and amazement in her observation of the child. Anne's gaze demonstrates astonishment at what she sees God has done, almost a sense of privilege in thinking about what has happened in her family. St Anne’s husband, St Joachim, Mary's father, is not depicted next to her: often Christian iconography only presents Anne with the Holy Family of the child Jesus, as if the birth of the Savior had gladdened her widowhood. Another protagonist of the painting is the sky: the background of the work is devoid of any environmental, natural or urban reference, it almost appears to be a theatrical set, a kind of scenography which acts as a commentary on the figures. Clouds with an unreal profile frame the scene, almost suggesting an interior, symbolic setting. At the center of the viewer’s attention, El Greco depicts an act rich in meaning: Jesus sucks milk from Mary's breast.
This gesture can certainly be read as a kind of educational reminder of the importance of breastfeeding one's own children directly, avoiding the practice of resorting to milk other than that of the mother. However, the main message of that breast offered to Christ is theological. The representation of the Virgin breastfeeding the newborn Christ is of course, affectionate in its portrayal but it underlines two important theological points. Above all, it highlights the disconcerting and moving way in which the Savior of the world came to meet us: the author of life, equal to the Father in nature, in divine majesty and omnipotence, divests himself of all greatness and makes himself small, needy even, needing to be loved, cared for and welcomed. The salvation with which the Son of God relieves man of his misery and restores hope to our existence is not an act of command or a magical repair job on our natures, but the arrival in our lives of an immense love that is given to us, asking only in return the response of our own love. Thus, man rediscovers that God is his joy, but he is also surprised to discover that God is so good as to consider us his joy and to have great consideration for the little we know how to give him.
The figure of the Child is partially covered by the yellow cloth with which Mary wraps him, but the genital organs of the baby remain exposed, perhaps a further affirmation of the concreteness of the humanity that He came to share with us, being like us in all things except sin. Precisely because that humanity is like ours, it is vulnerable and destined to experience the greatest test of our existence, death. Joseph's caresses of Jesus' feet and Anna's of his head almost seem to anticipate the same gestures which many examples of Christian art depict in scenes of Jesus being taken down from the Cross, when another Joseph, Joseph of Arimathea, and other women, companions of Mary in faith, mourn and caress the martyred and bloodless limbs of the Son of God who died on the cross, pierced by nails and the crown of thorns. At the same time, Mary is highlighted as the one who transmitted human life to the Son of God. As the faith of the Church clarified in the Council of Ephesus in the year 431, it is correct to invoke Mary as Mother of God, and not simply as mother of Jesus, since a mother is not the creator of the person of her children, but the woman who receives them as a gift from God and who transmits to them the gift of human life. Since Jesus is one person of the Trinity, that is, the divine Person of the Son, who takes flesh through Mary, she is effectively the Mother of God, having given birth in her body to Christ, who is true man and true God at the same time.
In this sense, Mary's clothes should also be interpreted theologically, according to the "Greek" mind of the painter, an expert in Byzantine icons, they are characterized by classic colors, red and blue with a white veil. The red, dark in its tones, is typical of the imperial dress of the Roman and Byzantine Emperor, therefore it is a sign of the very high dignity with which the humble girl of Nazareth was clothed. Blue is the color of the mantle that Christ wears in Eastern icons, therefore it signifies the resemblance to Christ which is perfectly realized in Mary. The white veil, as well as being a sign of purity without stain of sin, is also a physical reminder of the relic of the veil of the Virgin Mary, brought from the East by Charlemagne and kept in the splendid French cathedral of Chartres.
