Antique Spanish Colonial Retablo Showing Our Lady of Guadalupe
Oil on tin, framed.

This image of Our Lady of Guadeloupe occupies most of the frame. She wears a beautifully embroidered dark-blue mantle featuring golden stylized stars; the stars demonstrate that she comes from above, from Heaven. Underneath the mantle, her white dress with wide-rimmed red-outlined sleeves features large reddish flowers in full bloom, a long loose necklace featuring a delicatedly outlined cross, and the crescent moon. She is also featured wearing a tight strand of pearls around her neck and a gold crown. Rays of light emanate from her head. Her long brown tightly-curled hair flows just outside the contours of her clothing. She stands between two tall lit candles (and their stylised rising smoke) set in simple floor-based candlesticks and between two stylised red drapery backdrop features. By standing on or above the moon (or in this case, as the moon has been translated into a design feature of her dress), she shows that she is more powerful than the god of darkness; the crescent moon also stands as a symbol of her perpetual virginity, her Immaculate Conception and/or her Assumption into Heaven. Her eyes look downwards filled with humility and compassion.
10 x 7 1/2 inches