Virgin of Las Lajas (Virgin of the Rosary with Christ Child, St. Dominic and St. Francis)
- unknown artist
Unknown artist, Virgin of Las Lajas (Virgin of the Rosary with Christ Child, St. Dominic and St. Francis), 1770s-1780s. Oil paint on limestone; 17 × 13¾ in. Gift of the Stapleton Foundation of Latin American Colonial Art, made possible by the Renchard family, 1990.342A.
The cult image of the Virgin of Las Lajas traces its origins to the mid-1700s in the rocky terrain near the Indigenous village of Ipiales, in what is now southern Colombia. According to the Franciscan friar, Juan de Santa Gertrudis, who visited the shrine in the late 1700s, an outline of the figure of the Virgin miraculously appeared on a slab of rock (laja) where it was discovered by local people, whose faith was renewed by the prodigious image. News spread quickly, and a shrine was erected on the site in 1795. The site remains a popular destination for pilgrims today.
The Virgin is a variation of the Virgin of the Rosary, and as such is shown endowing St. Dominic with the Rosary while the Christ Child hands the Franciscan cord to St. Francis of Assisi. The Virgin sits in the heavens atop a crescent moon and a blossoming rose. The image is painted on limestone, a technique that was not common in colonial Nueva Granada. The use of stone here may be an evocation of the image’s origins on the lajas.
– Kathryn Santner, Frederick and Jan Mayer Fellow of Spanish Colonial Art, 2022
