Wooden frame wrapped in silver leaf for a worship painting. Rectangular in shape, it is formed by a concave molding of an external half gallon frieze and an inner row of contraries. In the corners and in the interstices it has overlapping spear-like plates in silver plate, embossed with flowers and fallen leaves. Finished in silver plate shaped like a crest composed of flowers of a larger size with five and six petals, pointed leaves and undulating ribbons, arranged symmetrically from a central double loop. As a phylactery, the textile band mimics the qualities of gallons of silk with smooth and polished recesses and reliefs, in contrast to the surfaces etched with fallen leaves.
The presence in the center of the painting of the image of Saint Jerome, flanked by the founder of the Dominicans and the Augustinian Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, seems to indicate his original belonging to a convent of this order, perhaps from the city of Puebla itself.
With no markings or inscriptions that inform of its origin and chronology, due to its style the work may belong to the baroque tradition, but evolving into neoclassicism, when crests with flower garlands intertwined with adornments of bows and ribbons became fashionable.[1]. It therefore seems to be a transitional work whose chronology we presume falls within the late eighteenth century or early in the next century, perhaps made outside of the capital.
[1]. See, for example, another private collection frame from the early nineteenth century with phylactery and the inscription «MATER DOLOROSA ORO PRO NOVIS» (MOTHER OF SORROW PRAY FOR US) or the pieces exhibited in the Mexican Silverworks display. Cf. Mexico and it silver, 1980: s. p.; and AA VV, 1994: p. 88, no. 177, p. 106, no. 226.
Sources:
AA VV, La Platería Mexicana, México, INAH, 1994.
México y su plata, México, Ediciones de Arte Comermex, 1980.
Wooden frame wrapped in silver leaf for a worship painting. Rectangular in shape, it is formed by a concave molding of an external half gallon frieze and an inner row of contraries. In the corners and in the interstices it has overlapping spear-like plates in silver plate, embossed with flowers and fallen leaves. Finished in silver plate shaped like a crest composed of flowers of a larger size with five and six petals, pointed leaves and undulating ribbons, arranged symmetrically from a central double loop. As a phylactery, the textile band mimics the qualities of gallons of silk with smooth and polished recesses and reliefs, in contrast to the surfaces etched with fallen leaves.
