Ca 1750 / Oil on wood / Approximately 40 x 32 cm / Artist: anonymous / Luis Ma. Araneta collection

The De la Rosa is the finest preserved example of a statue painting or painting of a venerated statue, popular in the 18th century. The subject is a statue brought from Acapulco in 1718. The painting is striking because of the impact of its straightforward presentation. The cult figure, triangular in shape because of the bell-like spread of her saintly robes, occupies almost the entire space of the painting; before her are three bunches of flowers: red roses on the left, blue on the right, and yellow in the middle.

The painting was executed in techniques quite different from those used in the 19th century. Rather than painted with wide sable brushes, the features of Mary and Jesus seem to have been rendered with a pointed brush or pen or a quill, as in book illumination or engraving on copper. Gold leaf is profuse on Mary’s robe. It is of reddish quality, much richer than those observed in 19th-century gold-tooled religious paintings. The confinement of the colors to red, blue, and ocher also suggests an 18th-century provenance.