This is an interesting painting from both historical and artistic points of view, because it shows the changes that can occur in a painting due to the actions of time and carelessness. The piece denotes restoration, which was undertaken according to criteria that preserved the appearance of abrasion (evidence of mechanical wear on the surface of the painting), acquired due to deterioration, thereby avoiding having to restore large portions of the missing areas. Although the chosen criteria are considered appropriate, the quality with which the process was carried out is not.
This situation is even more regrettable since there are not many paintings signed by the local artist from Puebla who signed this piece: Jose Berrueco. Francisco Perez Salazar recorded seven painters of the same name, but it is still impossible to reconstruct their kinship. The best known was Luis Berrueco, perhaps for being the head of a workshop. About Jose, only one marriage was ed in 1758, to Isabel Gonzalez, where it is written that his father was also named Jose. Observing the wedding dates of Luis, it is clear that he was the oldest painter with that name (1720, 1721 and 1728).[1] Since many paintings from Puebla are signed only as Berrueco without a first name, it is impossible to separate the artistic characteristics of these artists.
The iconographic solution of St. Joseph standing with baby Jesus held in one hand, touching his father affectionately, who also holds the blossomed lily of purity, was very popular in the transition of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and we can recall very similar paintings by Cristobal de Villalpando and Juan Correa. However, on this occasion the characters appear among clouds, as a mystical vision, and in the presence of the Holy Spirit, which was more common during the eighteenth century, when painters such as Jose de Ibarra and Miguel Cabrera preferred to place the figures seated. This combination seems to correspond to a sensibility that meets these two periods halfway, in the same manner as painting the saint's radiance like a sun that alternates straight rays with meandering ones was more common in the seventeenth century, while the brushstrokes seem quicker and more dabbed, worked by means of spots, which was a sign of eighteenth century modernity.
The reddish tone of the painting is due to the fact that the preparation layer shows from beneath the pictorial layers that have been lost or have thinned with time. Perhaps due to the loss of glazes, the face of the child seems very coarse, even more so in contrast to that of his father, better defined and with more volume. The work of the decorated clothing shows that the painter devoted time to the details which, in any case, are greatly diminished due to the deterioration of the piece.
[1]. Francisco Pérez Salazar, Historia de la pintura en Puebla, Edición, introducción y notas de Elisa Vargas Lugo, México, UNAM, Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, 1963, (Estudios y fuentes del arte en México ; XIII), p. 164.
This is an interesting painting from both historical and artistic points of view, because it shows the changes that can occur in a painting due to the actions of time and carelessness. The piece denotes restoration, which was undertaken according to criteria that preserved the appearance of abrasion (evidence of mechanical wear on the surface of the painting), acquired due to deterioration, thereby avoiding having to restore large portions of the missing areas. Although the chosen criteria are considered appropriate, the quality with which the process was carried out is not.
