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| Simon Vouet Madonna & Child with St. Elizabeth ca. 1624-26 Prado |
A softer and more pliable Madonna dominated European painting after 1600. The relaxed style had been foreshadowed for a some while,.representations of the Virgin growing warmer as religious faith cooled. One line of argument holds that the increased 'persuasive' function aspired to by Baroque religious art – and the consequent humanizing of heaven – was a belated campaign to promote an already-lost cause.
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| Bartolomé Murillo Madonna Gives Her Milk to St. Bernard ca. 1655 Prado |
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| Carlo Maratta Madonna & Child ca. 1656 Prado |
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| Giambattista Tiepolo Adoration of the Magi ca. 1758-59 Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Anton Raphael Mengs Adoration of the Shepherds ca. 1769 Prado |
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| François Boucher Madonna & Child with St. John the Baptist 1765 Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Sebastiano Ricci Holy Family with Angels ca. 1700 Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Francisco Goya Holy Family with St. John the Baptist 1775-80 Prado |
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| Michel-Ange Houasse Holy Family with St. John the Baptist 1723 Prado |
The final three paintings, all from the Prado, are equally warm but date back to earlier times.
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| Ippolito Scarsella Madonna & Child ca. 1585 Prado |
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| Correggio Madonna & Child with St. John the Baptist ca. 1516 Prado |
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| Francesco Salviati Holy Family with Angel Bird Catcher ca. 1543 Prado |
Francesco Salviati chose to work with an unusually wide spectrum of colors in his Holy Family – with angel offering a rainbow-colored cockatoo to Baby Jesus (and St Joseph asleep, in burnt orange).