Quito School; XVII century. Lot n° 49

Quito School; 17th century. "Archangel Saint Raphael". Oil on canvas. It conserves its original canvas. Measurements: 77,5 x 59 cm. Hieratic and in the centre of the composition, we can observe the figure of an angel. The fish that hangs from one of his hands and the partana in another one, indicates us that it can be the representation of the Archangel Saint Raphael. This archangel is one of the seven archangels who is before the throne of God. He is known as the healing Archangel, because of his divine intervention with the character Tobias, whom he healed from blindness. He is often depicted with a fishing rod, next to a fish or with the pilgrims' staff, an attribute that identifies him as the patron saint of travellers since, with his help, he guides spiritual journeys in the search for truth and knowledge. The work is largely reminiscent of the aesthetic patterns that became popular at the time, which depicted harquebusier angels, or torchbearers. They were indispensable in the representation of sculptural groups of a religious nature, featuring the figure of saints, Jesus or the Virgin. It is worth mentioning that, during the Spanish colonial domination, a mainly religious painting was developed, aimed at Christianising the indigenous peoples. Local painters were modelled on Spanish works, which they followed literally in terms of type and iconography. The most frequent models were the harquebusier angels and the triangular virgins, but in the early 19th century, at the time of independence and political openness in some of the colonies, several artists began to depict a new model of painting with its own identity. Technically and stylistically, it was part of the Quito school, one of the most important colonial hotbeds of religious art in the world during the Baroque period. Indigenous and mestizo artists were trained in the workshops of the convents of the Ecuadorian capital. In the 17th century in particular, the Quito school of painting began to flourish, represented by four great masters: Hernando de la Cruz, Miguel de Santiago, Isabel de Santiago and Nicolás Javier Goribar, artists who started from a tradition originating in Spain, transgressing the imposed style and contributing an idiosyncratic language to their pictorial work.