Mexican School 17th century.
"Coronation of the Virgin".
Oil on canvas.
Size: 104 x 83 cm.
The present work shows an idealized natural landscape in the background, with the figures in big size in the foreground, as it was usual after the dispositions of the Council of Trent that directed the change of the Roman Catholicism in the Counter-Reformation. On the left, dressed in the typical unfinished leather in shades of brown and a red cloak, is Saint John the Baptist, placing the crown on the Virgin. In the centre of the painting, following an ascending line, is the dove of the Holy Spirit emanating light, and below, the Virgin, dressed in a red tunic and blue cloak, with her hands clasped in prayer and with an elegant gesture of humility. On the right, God appears, with the ball of the world in his hands, symbol of creation, and holding the crown in his hands like Saint John the Baptist, placing it in the Virgin's hands.
Compositionally, and as is usual in the Mexican school of the period, clear influences of the Sevillian school can be seen (composition, gestures, colours, landscape, iconography, etc.), as well as a series of particularities of the school to which the work belongs (especially in the faces of the figures). It is also possible to speak of a slight recollection of models from Murillo, and the strong dependence on 17th-century Baroque models in the present work is clear.