Attributed to Francisco del Pozo (Milan, Italy, XVI century - Active in Tunja at the end of the XVI century). “Saint Agnes” Oil on canvas. 140 x 92 cm   This painting is undoubtedly attributable to Francisco del Pozo. There are several elements to observe. Firstly, the comparison with Saint Margaret of Antioch by Francisco del Pozo, located in the Church of El Topo in Tunja, Colombia. The two paintings, in our opinion, share many striking similarities, starting with the faces of both saints—often the most revealing feature of a painter’s hand—which are almost identical. They both wear a very particular and distinctive type of dress. In both compositions, the saint appears in a prominent foreground with a high-quality painted landscape on either side, and, interestingly, both saints are shown with a lamb as their attribute—which it indeed is—and the lambs are also very similar. Furthermore, a particularly interesting observation was made a few years ago by a professor from the University of Madrid to the owner of the painting: the iconography (although translated into a Baroque style) follows that of the Byzantine mosaic of Saint Agnes found in the apse of the Basilica of Saint Agnes Outside the Walls in Rome. At that time, only an Italian painter would have been thoroughly familiar with it. Francisco del Pozo, born in Milan, settled in the New World as a painter. It is nearly impossible to imagine that any non-Italian artist of that era would have known of the mosaic, and the painting is evidently not Italian either. As for biographical information, little is known. According to the Real Academia de la Historia, this is what is recorded in Hispanic history: “Only one painting by this artist is documented, which depicts the Virgin of Candelaria. The image is accompanied by Saints Francis and Dominic, patrons of the Augustinian Hermit friars who commissioned the work, named Domingo de Anaya and Francisco Rodríguez. These friars chose the wilderness of La Candelaria in Ráquira as their place of retreat at the beginning of the colonial period, and the painting is still preserved in the monastery chapel. It bears the inscription: ‘Franciscus Puteus Medionalensis, fecit anno 1597’. Francisco del Pozo was part of the group of Italian artists who arrived in New Granada and left their mark on the first colonial painters. He lived in Tunja at the same time as Angelino de Medoro, and the marvellous Renaissance-style mural decorations in Tunja’s houses are probably their work.”   Provenance: Private collection, Spain.   Reference bibliography:   - https://arcav1.uniandes.edu.co/artworks/16086 - https://historia-hispanica.rah.es/biografias/37937-francisco-del-pozo