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Ecuador - Spanish Colonial Christ as the Good Shepherd Communing with a Lamb - ECUADOR, 18TH CENTURY |
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Christ as the Good Shepherd Communing with a Lamb 36 2/3 x 24 inches (93 x 61 cm); framed size 40 ½ x 28 ¾ inchesThough some Quiteño painters still held to a tenebrist, heavily-shadowed palette, a distinctive and brightly-colored eighteenth-century palette became pervasive in Quito, as well as a predilection for delicate figures, like those of this Christ and the Lamb of God. Note the careful positioning of Christ’s hands and his crossed feet, and the way that he cradles the front leg of the lamb, as the rest of the flock makes its way to the door to the Kingdom of Heaven. The mouths of the Lamb and of the Satan-wolf are both open; the Lamb welcomes bliss, and eternal life, but the wolf is vanquished by the jagged, red bolt of lightning from Heaven.[1] This may be a second version of a painting made by Manuel Samaniego (who lived from 1767-1824; in the collection of the Banco Central, Quito). A different composition by this painter Manuel Samaniego depicts the Lamb of God under greater threat from Satan (as a dog) also in the collection of the Banco Central, Ecuador. [1] See Stratton-Pruitt, Suzanne, The Virgin, Saints and Angels: South American Paintings 1600-1825 from the Thoma Collection. SKIRA Publishers in assoc with the Iris and Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, Stanford, California, 2006, cat 37. |
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