Viceroyalty School; New Spain, c. 1790.

Viceroyalty School; New Spain, c. 1790.
"Workshop of St. Joseph with donor".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Presents frame of the nineteenth century.
Measurements: 98 x 73 cm; 108 x 82 cm (frame).
The present work gathers a sacred scene in which St. Joseph, Mary, the Child, St. John and some little angels form an image of the daily life of a family. In the lower left zone, a praying character indicates that he is the donor of the work, a common resource in religious painting. Without distorting the main scene, he turns his back to the main characters. The children are located in a lower area and the Virgin and St. Joseph are monumental with respect to the dimensions of the infants. In spite of this difference the scene could represent the office of any family, however, a wide break of Glory crowns the upper zone with the presence of God the Father, the Holy Spirit and a court of angels Musicians. In the lower zone an inscription reads "It is the custody virtue, taste will keep it and in saints and good works as the palm will flourish".
Joseph's trade as a carpenter is mentioned in two of the canonical gospels, being this one more developed in an apocryphal one. Saint Joseph was an exemplary husband of Mary, good father and protector of his family. His work activity soon made him the recognized patron saint of carpenters. From the end of the 15th century, the promotion of the putative father of Christ, to whom the mystics also dedicated a fervent devotion, became more and more evident.
As far as artistic representations of St. Joseph were concerned, he remained in the background, since no theological importance was attached to him. However, after the Council of Trent, his protagonist role as protector of Jesus during his childhood, as a guide during his youth, was recovered, and as such he is represented here. Through this form of representation, the author visually enhances the decisive role as protector of the putative father of Jesus.
It is worth mentioning that, during the Spanish colonial domination, a mainly religious painting was developed, aimed at Christianizing the indigenous peoples. The local painters were modeled on Spanish works, which they followed literally in terms of types and iconography. The most frequent models were the harquebusier angels and the triangular virgins, however, it was not until the first years of the 19th century, already in times of independence and political opening of some of the colonies, that several artists began to represent a new model of painting with its own identity.