Provenance:

Private Collection, Argentina; there acquired by

Mr. and Mrs. Ernest T. Harper, New York, by 1960; by descent to:

Mr. and Mrs. Alan Harper, New York, until 2024.

This scroll painting is a remarkable survivor of the Spanish Viceregal period. Likely produced in Mexico, where scroll paintings had a particular vogue, this work is notable for its remarkable state of preservation—retaining its original framing elements. The canvas is unlined and unstretched, and was painted to be presented in the manner in which it is now seen: as a portable scroll with a hanging bar along the top edge. There is a thin unpainted border along the sides of the canvas, and the bottom is affixed to a roller with finials at either end. Both the bar and roller are made of wood, and each are painted with a red ground and embellished with gilt elements. When closed for transport or storage, the roller, with the canvas wrapped around it, nestles into the reverse of the top bar. This work was possibly originally kept in a scrolling case, perhaps one that could accommodate a small group of related paintings.

The subject of a guardian angel with a child blossomed in European painting of the 17th century and was transmitted via prints to the New World. There, paintings of angels and archangels proliferated, developing into one of the most appealing subjects treated by Spanish Colonial artists. Depictions of guardian angels were undoubtedly influenced by the popularity over the previous centuries of the Biblical episode of Tobias and the Archangel Raphael. Paintings of Tobias and the Angel were especially beloved from the Renaissance on as an image of a child being looked after by an angel, but also due to the special role of the Archangel Raphael as a protector of travelers and health. The main attributes of treatments of that subject—the fish caught by Tobias—is notably absent here, and the child holds a small walking staff, as if being led on a journey. Furthermore, the fact that the principal angel points upwards towards a divine light signals that the theme of this work is the saving of a soul.