AUTHOR: SEBASTIAN SALZEDO

XVIII CENTURY

 

 

OILS ON CANVAS:

 

SAINT PETER

SAINT BARTOLOME

JAMES THE ELDER

SAINT MATHEW

SAINT SIMON

SAINT MATTHIAS

 

 

AUTHOR: FRANCISCO MARTINEZ

XVIII CENTURY

CA.1733

 

 

OILS ON CANVAS:

 

SAINT IGNACIUS OF LOYOLA AND THE HOLY TRINITY

MARTYDOM OF SAINT SEBASTIAN

SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

SAINT JOHN NEPOMUCENO

THE GOOD SHEPARD

HOSSANNA IN EXCELSIS

 

 

 

AUTHOR: JUAN CORREA

XVIII CENTURY

 

 

OILS ON CANVAS:

 

SAINT GREGORY MAGNO

SAINT ATANASIO

 

 

AUTHOR: GONZALO CARRASCO

XIX CENTURY

 

SAINT PETER CLAVER

Juan Correa (1646-1716) was born during the Inquisition to Pascuala de Santoya, who was a freed African slave, and to a famous Spanish barber-surgeon father (the barbers of the time were also the surgeons, as they cured the sick  by the letting of blood).

 

He was a very important artist during Colonial times in New Spain.

First, as a mulatto painter he was representative of a new social group emerging in New Spain, the mestizos and the mulattos (the children of intermarriage of Indigenous or Africans and those of Spanish descent). Normally, mulattos or mestizos could aspire to nothing greater in the art world than jobs as apprentices with painters. It was almost inconceivable at the time that the descendents of the African population could rise to the position of leader and teacher of other painters.

 

Second, he was practitioner, and, along with Cristobal Villalpando, the primary teacher, of the Baroque style developing in New Spain at this time.  Juan Correa, his colleagues, students and apprentices tried to convey the current religious ideas and teachings through images and symbols, using colors, movements and gestures reflected in distinct iconography. These baroque style paintings became prevalent in the backdrops, chapels and sacristies of the most well known convents and churches in various regions of New Spain.

 

This why Juan Correa’s work is given such great importance: it is not only the rich colors and grand compositions, but also for his position in Mexican art history and our knowledge of the social and ethnic dynamic in New Spain during his lifetime - the social and ethnic heritage of  contemporary Mexicans.

 

 

“San Atanasio” y “San Gregorio” are part of his art work

 

 

Gonzalo Carrasco, S. J., was born in Otumba, Mexico, January 18, 1859 and died January 19, 1936 in Puebla.   He started studying as a novice in St. Simon’s  Jesuit Seminary and later, as a Jesuit priest, became the rector of Puebla College, as well as a senior official in the Jesuit’s residence house in the same city.

 

He dedicated his life to ministering to the souls of the people, especially the poor. He was very popular and well liked  because of his selfless dedication to others, his kindness and caring.  His religious life was also exemplary and on occasion, heroic.

 

His extraordinary artwork has a place in the history of  Mexican art.  The painting of his that we have is “San Pedro Claver”.  In this painting our attention is drawn to the piousness and mercifulness of San Pedro’s face while he is attending to the sick African slave, with the whole picture showing us the mercy and benevolence of Jesus Christ.

 

 Miguel Correa, son of Juan Correa, has left us a number of paintings that demonstrated that the height of his career was at the beginning of the 18th century, at which time he was also named the leader of a group of painters.  In the Profesa Church in Mexico City one of his paintings, of the Final Judgement, dates back to 1718.

 

This collection of 12 paintings presents a series on the Life of the Virgin Mary from her birth until Pentecost.

 

Francisco Martinez was born in Mexico City at the end of the 17th century, and has an extensive list of works of art.  He was not only a painter, he was also a “gold leaf setter” perhaps the most famous one to come after Rodriguez and Juarez and before Ibarra and Cabrera.

 

He was a secretary of the Holy Office, but we do not have any historical information about his work at this time, nor do we have any additional information about his life.  We do know that he was the gold leaf setter for the Altar of the Kings in the Cathedral in Mexico City, completed in 1743.  He left many wonderful and famous works of art and it is said that he is the most famous gold leaf setter of this period.

 

His paintings are noted not only for their beauty, but the interesting composition of people and landscapes.  He also frequently included angels in his work. His portraits, however, are considered the best of his work.  He died in Mexico in 1758.

 

The following four paintings in our collection are unquestionably his:

“San Juan Nepomuceno,” “El Martirio de San Sebastian,”“El Buen Pastor” and “San Ignacio de Loyola y la Santísima Trinidad.”  It is possible, but not certain, that the following two are also his, the first because of its style and angel faces, the second because of where it was found: “Hossana en Excelsis” and “San Francisco de Asis.”

 

 

Sebastian Salzedo,  The painter of the Virgen del Carmen , which is “technically well executed without being considered a master work”, and of four small paintings Escenas de la Pasión completed in in 1779, that are exhibited in the Church of La Enseñanza in Mexico City.

 

 We know that the six Apostles that we have here were painted by him because his signature appears on #12. The Slovak restorers of these paintings considered them to be excellent works of art for their composition and their portraiture.

 

Miguel Correa, son of Juan Correa, has left us a number of paintings that demonstrated that the height of his career was at the beginning of the 18th century, at which time he was also named the leader of a group of painters.  In the Profesa Church in Mexico City one of his paintings, of the Final Judgement, dates back to 1718.

 

This collection of 12 paintings presents a series on the Life of the Virgin Mary from her birth until Pentecost.