Reading the Fate of the Christ Child

Óbidos often created very shallow scenes as a "strategy" to hide the fact that she was not very skilled in perspective. At the same time, however, this compositional choice serves to push the figures closer together, thereby increasing the sense of intimacy and emotional warmth that she was already so skilled at depicting in her figures' facial expressions. Obidos successfully infused this work with her enormous talent and inspiration The scene is overflowing with unrivaled tenderness and warmth.
In addition to being a decorative element, the column "s a strong iconographic element as a Christological symbol and as an image of faith which she used in other religious works.

As for her inclusion of a still life scene of fruit and flowers, no doubt inspired by the Flemish works she so admired, and serving here as a testament to her skill as a still life painter, the fruit has symbolic meaning, with the ensemble indicating the abundance and prosperity of fortune, the melon representing wisdom, and the apple linking to the idea of Mary as the New Eve, conceived without sin and destined to redeem humanity from the faults of the primitive Eve.

This painting is a scene in which the youthful Virgin Mary, wearing the head covering of an Egyptian gypsy, sits in a dark interior between a column and an ornate wooden table upon which sits a bowl containing a melon, apples, grapevines, and flowers. On Mary's lap sits the Christ child, who gazes curiously downward at an older gypsy woman kneeling on the ground who is holding his hand as she reads his palm. To the left of the scene, but nestled in closely, are two additional women, a baby, and a child. All four lean in intently, evidently curious about the scene that is unfolding before them. The only other object identifiable in the scene is a section of purple drapery just behind the Virgin's head. 

This oil on copper -work of art is in the Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan