Artworks
European, viceregal & Asian art
Saint Barbara
Fray Bachiller Bartolomé de Arenas, New Spain, 17th century (active 1670)
Oil on canvas
40.16 × 29.33 in
Signed 'ARENAS F' at the lower left, this painting presents Saint Barbara with her tower and eucharistic attributes, beneath angels carrying the palm and crown of martyrdom. Her dress is...
Signed 'ARENAS F' at the lower left, this painting presents Saint Barbara with her tower and eucharistic attributes, beneath angels carrying the palm and crown of martyrdom. Her dress is covered with an intricate repertory of flowers, birds and scrolling ornament. The English study places this decorative richness in dialogue with the lacquer traditions of Michoacán. The work offers an important point of reference for the study of Bartolomé de Arenas in seventeenth-century New Spain.