Mexican, 18th Century St. Sebastian Oil on canvas 25 x 19 inches (63 x 48 cm) Indistinctly inscribed, lower left: ‘S. Sebastian Patron de Lugar de Erran de Devocion de D. Pedro Ca…n del….’ (below it) OTTO VENIUS (I?)MTAT…Lower right (by a different hand):’Sebastian se benere….Barrio de Arran’(below that, by a third hand)….’ano 17…’ The inscription refers to the Barrio de Herrán in Santillana del Mar (in Spain’s northern region of Cantabria, not far from Santander). There is a shrine nearby on a pilgrim’s route dedicated to St. Sebastian, and his festival is celebrated there in May of each year. Many Mexican paintings were taken back to Spain with the men/families that had working sojourns in Mexico. Often, paintings were commissioned from New World painters by Spaniards while they were in the Americas, in order to set up a private altar, or to venerate a local patron saint from the Spanish home town. Stylistically, this Mexican painting can be dated to the third or fourth quarter of the eighteenth century, with strong influences of Miguel Cabrera (who died in 1768). The painter José de Alcíbar (1751-1803) demonstrated Cabrera’s influence, and he is the most likely candidate for the painter of this work.
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