**Originally Listed At $300**

Latin America, Mexico, Los Altos de Jalisco, San Juan de los Lagos, ca. 1932 CE. A sweet ex-voto on heavy gauge tin depicting a woman and young child each holding a candle and kneeling in prayer to Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos, which is a Roman Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary venerated by Mexican and Texan faithful. As traditional to her iconography, the virgin mother is shown in prayer wearing a golden Byzantine-style crown, a white gown, and a blue mantle above an upturned crescent moon. A stunning yellow and white aura surrounds the Virgin, while a man lying in a bed is shown in the upper right corner. The text below generally translates to, "In 1932, Sebastian Hernandez was very ill. While working, his father hit a wheel and his aunt told him that he had to go to Maria Santisima de San Juan de los Lagos." Canonically coronated in 1904, the image of Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos is found in the Basilica Minor of San Juan de los Lagos and is one of the most visited pilgrimage shrines in Mexico. A lovely metal wire loop at the top of the painting allows it to be suspended for display. Size: 10" W x 7.625" H (25.4 cm x 19.4 cm)

Ex-votos are little story paintings indicative of healing or blessing popular in Mexican visual culture. This tradition was inspired by the Greeks and was brought to the New World by the Spaniards. These votive paintings were hung in a church or home in order to celebrate and give thanks for the recovery of an individual from an illness or dangerous situation. Hence, ex-votos represent the spiritual or physical gains received. These paintings include hand painted passages that relate the details of the cure or the rescue. Typically, however, this commentary is replete with regional dialect and difficult to translate. Nevertheless, if one is familiar with the Spanish language, it is possible to understand these anecdotal paintings.

Provenance: private Lake City, Colorado, USA collection

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#163821

Bending to overall form and corners, with light abrasions and fading to some painted areas on obverse, and light oxidation. Otherwise, intact and very good. Nice remains of pigment across obverse, and text is still legible.