Spanish school; end of the XVII century.

Spanish school; late seventeenth century.
"Virgin of Valvanera.
Oil on canvas.
Measurements. 58 x 46 cm; 72 x 59 cm (frame).
The Virgin of Valvanera is a Marian invocation of the Sierra de la Demanda, La Rioja (Spain), of which she is the patron saint and one of the seven patron saints of the autonomous communities of Spain. The appearance of the image is recounted in the Latin History, written in 1419 by Rodrigo de Castroviejo Abbot of Valvanera, as a translation of a 12th century Latin text probably written by Gonzalo de Berceo. It tells that the thief Nuño Oñez, hearing the prayer of the one who was going to be his victim, repented of his crimes, commending himself to the Virgin Mary to help him change his life. One day during his prayers an angel appeared to him, telling him to go to Valvanera in search of an oak tree that stood out from the others, from the foot of which a fountain sprouted and which contained several swarms of bees, where he would find an image of the Virgin Mary. He went to that place with the clergyman Domingo and found the image. In that place they would begin to build a place of worship to the Virgin, in the last third of the ninth century. In this work the author shows the moment in which the invocation of the Virgin appears, for it arranges the main figures; the Virgin and the Nile between her arms, on a pedestal and inscribed in the interior of a trunk. In this interior there are several bees that flutter near the face of the Virgin and the Child. In this sort of natural throne, the base is flanked on one side by the fountain reflected in the legend, while on the other side there is a small open chest full of jewels. On the sides of the trunk, a landscape can be seen in the distance, on the side of which there are two figures: an angel and a seated young man who receives the Angel's warning.
It is worth mentioning that, during the Spanish colonial domination, a mainly religious painting was developed, destined to Christianize 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.