Inmaculada Concepción [Immaculate Conception]

Inscriptions on the back: Alfaro pinx, Xalapa, anno 1791. El Yllmo Sr. Obispo de Mérida de Maracaibo Br Dn Santiago Hernz Milanés concedió quarenta días de Yndulgencia los que resaren una salve a esta Ymagen [Alfaro painted. Xalapa, year 1791. The most illustrious Mr. Bishop of the city of Mérida de Maracaibo Dn Santiago Hernz Milanés granted forty days of indulgences to anyone who prays in front of this image]

This painting shows a facet of the Baroque style characterized by gentle facial features and delicate brushstrokes that convey the sweet character of celestial beings. The inscription on the back indicates that the painting was created in Xalapa, a city in eastern Mexico, near Veracruz, the port from which local riches traveled to Europe. Paintings like this one, however, traveled south around 1800 to the Maracaibo port in what is now Venezuela, a route primarily used to trade cacao from the Caribbean. The inscription also mentions that the local bishop granted indulgences, believed to award a reduction in the amount of eternal punishment to anyone praying in front of this painting. Although such indulgences were criticized during the Protestant Reformation, the practice was kept in the Catholic Church as an assertion of the sacred power of images.