This oil painting belonging to the Amparo Museum is a really interesting and very complex work, from its iconography to the fact that its canvas has three pictorial layers, each one superimposed on the other. The substrate totally visible today represents Saint Dismas, the Good or Penitent Thief, who was crucified at the same time as Christ and the Bad Thief, usually called Gestas. The Gospel of Luke refers to them both, although he does not mention their names:
"And one of the thieves who were crucified blasphemed against Jesus, saying: Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us. But the other rebuked him, saying: Do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence">[1]
From the words that Jesus spoke, he considered Dismas a saint, even though he was never canonized. Apparently his cult in New Spain was quite popular, which did not happen in some places in Europe.[2] In the city of Puebla, stands out a sculpture of the saint, presumably from the seventeenth century, in the temple of La Merced which, which despite having lost its original altarpiece, is an example of the devotion that represented him emotionally affected and in tears on the cross.[3]
In the Museum's painting, Dismas appears tied to the cross, with both arms in front and one leg bent back while the other is stretched out. The gestures of the face and hand make reference to what he is saying and by the inclination of the face, it is clear that he communicates with a character to his left, undoubtedly Jesus, to whom he would be asking for mercy. Since the scene occurred at dusk, the artist imposed a certain chiaroscuro on the scene, making it more dramatic. His good skill is denoted in the depiction of the saint's muscles, as well as in the expressive brushstrokes of the context.
However, at first glance it is possible to identify the presence of three pictorial layers in this canvas, one of them in the opposite position. Saint Dismas is observed as the last pictorial layer in a vertical format, but on the head of the character it is possible to detect some letters that are inverted with respect to the saint and that correspond to an inscription. Also in the sky, where a city is seen in the distance, the underlying pictorial layer appears clearly, showing an arm and a hand, since the oil used as an agglutinative modifies its refractive index as it ages, so that the pictorial layers appear translucent. Similarly, a portrait can be seen in the corners of the canvas, in which an oval frame is perceived, it visually delimited the painting over which Saint Dismas was painted. Likewise, at the base of the image, part of an inscription is observed, common in paintings New Spain with this theme.
Due to the image's complexity, different techniques were proposed to determine the canvas material and prefigure its date, which would correspond to the oldest painting, as well as to establish the number of pictorial or underlying layers, and to try and define the image or images and their composition. The first approach involved taking samples from the canvas, both of the weft and the warp, which revealed a mixture of jute,[4] linen or hemp fibers. The composition places the canvas materiality in the New Spain period, but could correspond to either the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. An analysis of the chromatic palette using fluoroscopy X-ray (FRX) revealed lead white, vermilion and earth colors, pigments that were used throughout the New Spain period, so unfortunately this analysis did not allow an specific period to be established.[5]
Through direct observation and infrared light, I was able to recover part of this inscription from the base of the painting, which allowed us to identify the figure beneath Saint Dismas. The X-rays taken of the image corroborated that it is the portrait of a man, dressed in the style of the late eighteenth century.
This is undoubtedly Don Ignacio de Echegoyen y Goytia, son of Juan de Echegoyen and Mariana de Goytia, who was born in Axpe de Busturia, Señorío de Vizcaya, and was baptized there on November 2, 1738. According to the information gathered by Dr. Javier Sanchiz,[6] don Ignacio came to New Spain, where he was married twice. His first marriage was to Maria Ana de Balbuena y Figueroa, whose family was located mainly in the bishopric of Michoacan in the first half of the eighteenth century. The second time he married in Mexico City on August 29, 1776, to Ines Gertrudis de Aguirre y Larrañaga, who was born in Nuestra Señora de Belen, Asientos de Ybarra.[7] He had at least three children with her from 1780 to 1786: Jose Ignacio Francisco Guadalupe de Jesus (November 20, 1780), Maria Guadalupe Josefa de Jesus Ignacia Margarita Gervasia Juliana Paulina (June 20, 1782) and Jose Ignacio Maria de Guadalupe de Jesus (January 6, 1786).
Don Ignacio appears mentioned as a cashier and paymaster of the Mexico City Cigar Factory in 1799, but no more information about his occupation has ever been found. Neither is it possible to learn of the decision behind why it was decided to paint Saint Dismas over his portrait, although the practice of reusing canvases was not exceptional.
The most surprising aspect about this painting belonging to the Museum is revealed by the X-rays that show that the portrait of Don Ignacio was painted over another portrait, this one of a nun, where it was possible to see part of her face, which is upside down, appearing more or less between the base of the wood and the saint's feet. The remains of the inscription in what is now the upper part of the painting correspond to this portrait, which would be the oldest painting of the three. The letters were covered with darker paint and are almost illegible, so that only the surname Goytia and the reference to the Kingdoms of Vizcaya could be identified, so it is likely that she was a maternal relative of Don Ignacio.
The use of X-ray imaging helped confirm the reuse of this canvas, not only twice as it is common, but on three occasions. The assumption is that this was a common practice due to the high cost of materials during the viceregal period compared to the sale price of the pieces already produced. It is also known that there was a significant shortage of European raw materials during the eighteenth century, which is why painters used scraps of linen to form a single canvas or reused paintings that were finished but unsold, giving rise to another partial or complete image, as in this case. Ocassionally, however, the reuse of canvases was also due to political causes or lawsuits, which were intended to censor the original images, often portraits, as a kind of punishment to those portrayed. These analyses have enabled us to glimpse the fragments of history behind this work of art.
1. Whereas Matthew tells that the two robbers ridiculed Christ on the cross. (Matthew 27:44)
2. Louis Reau, for example, believes that there are not many individual representations of the saint. Louis Reau, Iconografia del arte cristiano. Iconografia de los santos. (Iconongraphy of the Saints) From A to F, Barcelona, Serbal, 2000, Tome 2, Vol. 3, pp. 378-379; while in Mexico it is common to find paintings, sculptures, altarpieces and even sermons.
3. Eduardo Merlo Juarez and Jose Antonio Quintana Fernandez mention this sculpture in their book Las iglesias de la Puebla de los Angeles, Mexico, Ministry of Culture, UPAEP, 2001, Tome 1, p. 285.
4. Naturally occurring fibers from the inner bark of plant stems, which include linen, hemp and jute.
5. Study by Jose Luis Ruvalcaba Sil, April 2012, pp. 27-29.
6. Dr. Sanchiz identified and obtained information about this figure, which will allow future research to discover more about him and his family.
7. Doña Ines Gertrudis was the daughter of Joaquin de Aguirre and Ines Larrañaga.
