1994.37.3 Virgin of the Rosary

The Feast of the Rosary on October 7 celebrates the Catholic practice of repeating a litany to the Virgin Mary while meditating on Christian mysteries through the use of a beaded cross. In this devotional image, the Virgin Mary prominently dangles a rosary while supporting the Christ Child on her lap. Particularly distinctive in this image is the delightful detail of the roses carried by putti, or angels, in the upper left corner; the flowers transform into rosaries as they tumble out of their basket.

Originally thought to be a Mexican painting of the late 18th or early 19th century, this painting has recently been reattributed to Melchor Pérez Holguín, one of colonial Bolivia's most successful painters around the city of Potosí, a major center for religious art. Evidence for the identification rests in the similarities between the faces of the Virgin and putti and those in other documented paintings by Holguín, as well as the elaborate overlay of gold leaf applied to the Virgin's cloak, a practice the artist was known to use.

Holguín_Melchor Pérez de: ULAN: 500077293

Potosí (inhabited place): AAT: 7017074

gold leaf: AAT: 300264831

painting (visual works): AAT: 300033618

eighteenth century: AAT: 300404512

Spanish Colonial (Spanish Renaissance-Baroque styles / styles and periods): AAT: 300107033

angels (spirits): AAT: 300379004

children (people by age group): AAT: 300025945

Christian holidays: AAT: 300264394

Christianity: AAT: 300073711

feasts: AAT: 300069097

gold leaf: AAT: 300264831

putti (motif): AAT: 300250465

Roman Catholicism (Christianity): AAT: 300073730

rosaries (prayer beads): AAT: 300262831

roses (flowers/plants/rosa genus): AAT: 300266246

Virgin Mary (Blessed Virgin Mary / Christian figure): DMA

Before 1956: Cleofas de la Garza (1870-1956) and Celia de la Garza 

By 1994: Virginia de la Garza and Mary de la Garza-Hanna, by descent from the above

1994: Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Virginia de la Garza and Mary de la Garza-Hanna, and an anonymous donor 

The main source for this provenance is a letter from Eleanor Jones Harvey of the Dallas Museum of Art to Virginia de la Garza and Mary de la Garza-Hanna, dated June 16, 1994, copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records Object File. 

Apply to objects where number equals 1994.37.3