Virgen de la Consolación (Virgin of Consolation)

Virgen de la Consolación (Virgin of Consolation)

after 1730
Artist
Vicente Luciano Talavera, Mexican, 1715
Born: Puebla, Mexico
Country
Puebla, Mexico
Object
painting
Medium
Oil paint on canvas
Accession Number
2015.540
Credit Line
David and Boo Butler, Lorraine and Harley Higbie, Carl Patterson and Alianza de las Artes Americanas in honor of Dr. Donna Pierce

Vicente Luciano Talavera, Virgen de la Consolación (Virgin of Consolation), after 1730. Oil paint on canvas; 63 × 38¼ in. David and Boo Butler, Lorraine and Harley Higbie, Carl Patterson and Alianza de las Artes Americanas in honor of Dr. Donna Pierce, 2015.540.

Dimensions
height: 63 in, 160.0200 cm; width: 38 1/4 in, 97.1550 cm; height: 70 in, 177.8000 cm; width: 45 in, 114.3000 cm
Inscription
Vro. Rto. De la Milagrosa Imagen de Na. Sa. De Consolacio / Aparecida esta Sta. Imagen de Marmol en el golfo de Rosas ano de 1289. Generada en el Real Convento de Santo Domingo de Xeres de la Frontera // Vicente Talavera fecit (True portrait of the miraculous image of Our Lady of Consolation. This holy image of marble appeared in the Gulf of Rosas in the year 1289. She was installed in the Royal Monastery of Santo Domingo in Jerez de la Frontera (Spain). Made (painted) by Vicente Talavera.)
Department
Mayer Center, Latin American Art
Collection
Latin American Art

Many Spaniards brought their home devotions with them to the Americas and propagated them there. This painting shows a statue of the Virgin of Consolation as it sat on an altar in a church in the town of Jerez de la Frontera in southern Spain. It was executed in the city of Puebla, Mexico, likely commissioned by a Spaniard from Jerez and probably based on an engraving of the original image. It shows the white marble statue of the Virgin dressed in red and blue and holding the Christ Child in her lap. She is seated on a pillow on a cart being pulled by two oxen, an allusion to the fact that the statue was discovered at sea by a crew of sailors and was transported to Jerez by oxcart.

The statue is depicted within the niche of an altar screen designed by Andrés Benitez in 1537 in the convent church of Santo Domingo in Jerez. The black and white emblem of the Dominican Order is visible at the top of the painting. The artist, Vicente Luciano Talavera (born in 1715), is from a family of well-known painters in Puebla, founded by his father, Cristóbal. While little is known of his biography, several of his paintings can be found in the collection of the University of Puebla. 

– revised by Kathryn Santner, Frederick and Jan Mayer Fellow of Spanish Colonial Art, 2023

Known Provenance
Provenance research is on-going at the Denver Art Museum. Please e-mail provenance@denverartmuseum.org, if you have questions, or if you have additional information to share with us.