Mexican Colonial

Sebastian Salcedo

Mexico fl: 1779-1783
Our Lady of Cortijo 25.0256

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The inscription on this painting may be translated as follows: "Chosen as the Sun/Beautiful as the Moon/who is this comes forth like the rising sun? True image of Our Lady of Cortijo [of the Hut], which is venerated in the town of Soto de los Cameros, Diocese of Calahorra, which the Licentiate Don Juan Felix Benito Calvo, Penitential Canon of the Holy Cathedral Church of Astorga, dedicates to his Illustriousness, the most illustrious Don Francisco Xavier Sanches Cavezon, Bishop of Astorga, who offers 40 days of indulgences to whoever prays a 'Hail Holy Queen.'" As the inscription indicates, this work is represents a cult image venerated in the Diocese of Calahorra in Spain, which Salcedo may have known from a print. The coat of arms is probably that of the bishop granting the indulgences but may refer to the founder of the convent. Although Salcedo was active as a painter of narrative religious subjects in the 1770s and 1780s, he seems to have made a specialty of jewel-like devotional images. The short range of dates on extant, or found, works suggests he either lived a short life or left painting to take up another career, most likely a religious one.

 

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