TREASURES FROM MEDIEVAL TO BAROQUE ART
Colonial school, Mexico, 18th century. The Coronation of the Divine Shepherdess by the Holy Trinity. Oil on canvas. Represents the Virgin under the invocation of the Divine Shepherd in the center, on it appears the Holy Trinity made up of the Holy Spirit represented by the dove, Christ with a cross and God the Father. Among these they hold a crown to pose on the head of the Virgin. In the background to the right appears the figure of the Archangel Saint Michael to save a lost sheep chased by a wolf. The lost sheep of the flock can return to him by joining in the recitation of the rosary, Saint Michael will act as “psychopompos” or conductor of the souls. This scene is narrated in “La Pastora coronada” by Fray Isidoro de Sevilla, who will dedicate all his efforts to spread the new title and attire of Divina Pastora de las Almas. This iconographic type spread with various variants in both Spanish and Iberian-American geography. The responsibility for such a successful trans-Atlantic dissemination campaign fell both on the Capuchin missionaries who carried the effigy as standard bearer in the conversion of the natives during the evangelization, on the Indian devotees who spread the new cult through images and above all the intense contacts with the port of Veracruz in Seville, the main starting point for America. Reference bibliography. Francisco Montes González: “The Divine Shepherd of the Souls. A Sevillian image for the New World”. Andalusia in America: Artistic Culture. University of Granada. Atrium. Granada, 2009. pp. 99-135. 56 x 42 cm.
