Latin America, Mexico, ca. 1875 CE. A finely painted rendering of San Francisco de Paula, the Italian saint who founded the Order of Minims or Hermits of Saint Francis in 1436 and infamously preached sermons about charity and humility to his pious followers, set in a lovely landscape - a superb composition. San Francisco de Paula is credited with miraculous cures, resurrecting the deceased, protection against fires, comfort for the maimed, the blind, and otherwise disabled, and preventing plagues. In Mexican paintings, San Francisco de Paula is depicted as a friar with the word Caritas or Caridad, oftentimes surrounded by flames, in his vecinity. He received his name following a visit with his parents to the shrine of Saint Francis of Assissi. At a young age of fifteen, San Francisco de Paula became a hermit and elected to reside in a cave near Reggio. This example reveals the artist's skill in organizing the composition with extensive iconography (including a lamb that has likely emerged from the burning oven with flames and plumes of smoke), modeling the face and hands of San Paulo, and setting the saint within a landscape that while not rendered in perfect linear perspective displays depth via atmospheric perspective. Size: 13-3/8" x 9-1/2".

Provenance: Ex-Historia Antiques, James Caswell, Santa Monica, CA

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#110008

Surface wear with a perforation at bottom left corner and a broken perforation at the upper right corner.