Attributed to Miguel Cabrera (Antequera de Oaxaca, Mexico, 1715 / 1720 - Mexico, 1768) Virgin of Carmen and the souls in purgatory'. Oil on canvas glued to board. On the back handwritten label indicating the property of Fray Juan de Lora (1722 - 1790) Spanish Bishop of Merida (Region of the Andes) and Maracaibo, will grant forty days of indulgence to the one who prayed a salve in front of this and evil. Signed in Velacruz on January 15, 1785. 28.5 x 23.5 cm. Miguel Cabrera was one of the most renowned painters in the field of Novo-Hispanic painting of the eighteenth century, with a production that the Dallas Museum of Art defines as 'legendary: more than 309 works from his great studio have been documented'. Of all the painters of that time, Cabrera was the one with the greatest personality; the conventional treatment in his figures was undoubtedly the basis of his way of painting, since he placed in his paintings models that were not ideal, but corresponded to people that the artist knew and treated, as when he incorporated in some paintings portraits of donors or of the so-called 'prelates' because he had the need to observe directly and copy from nature. In addition to easel painting, his production includes the design of altarpieces, large format works, as well as small copper works and nun's shields. Cabrera's religious painting produces figures of remarkable beauty, a beauty understood under the ideological assumptions of the devotion of the time. It is a refined art that possesses a well-arranged chromatic richness, is sustained by a great work of composition and, no less important, a subtle and expressive drawing. Little is known of his youth; in fact, according to the Andres Blaisten Museum, it is not until the painter's will in 1768 that we know he was a native of Oaxaca. His first news are from 1739, the year of his marriage to Mrs. Ana María Solano, as well as we know of his time in the workshop of Juan Correa in the capital of the Viceroyalty. Archbishop Rubio Salinas was Cabrera's protector, whom he named his chamber painter. He was also painter of the Society of Jesus, for whose churches he made numerous works. In 1753 he was named president for life of the Academy of San Carlos. In 1756 Cabrera published 'Maravilla americana y conjunto de raras maravillas observadas con la dirección de las reglas del arte de la pintura', an account of the image of the Virgin Guadalupe in the printing press of the Jesuit college of San Ildefonso. His work is preserved in many churches and convents in Mexico.Two of his images of the Virgin of Guadalupe are in the Vatican Museum.Another, made in 1756, for the temple of San Francisco Javier, is conserved in the National Museum of the Viceroyalty. Reference Bibliography: - Andres Blaisten Museum. (n.d.). https://museoblaisten.com/Artista/79/Miguel-Cabrera