Gabriel José de Ovalle, active in Mexico during the first half of U the 18th century, was a "passionate popular painter”48 to whom the Historiography of Viceroyalty Art has not devoted the depth of study he deserves. His, as was also the case for so many of his contemporaries, was an example of a painter immersed in an artistic environment where practically all that was asked of him was a correct iconographic approach, above and beyond aesthetic verisimilitude or technical prowess. The function of art in the context of the Council of Trent resided in transmitting the Counter-Reformation message, highlighting art's didactic capacities and largely dismissing the painter's imagination and creative capabilities.