Novohispanic School. Possibly Potosí. Bolivia. Signed Fonceca, 1774. 'True Portrait of Our Lady of Soterraña' Oil on canvas glued to wood. Signed 'fonceca pint.' and dated 1774. 41,5 x 31 cm.   The cartouche at the bottom margin reads: 'La Milagrosa Imagen de Nuestra Señora de la Soterraña venerada en Santa María de Nieva, especial defensora de rayos y centellas.' (The Miraculous Image of Our Lady of Soterraña venerated in Santa María de Nieva, a special defender against lightning and sparks.) The Virgin of Soterraña is a Marian advocation venerated in the church of the town of Santa María la Real de Nieva in Segovia, where, as reported by Josemi Lorenzo in his interesting research on the church, 'ten representations of the Virgin of Soterraña, eight pictorial and two sculptural,' are found, indicating the strong devotional weight this image has historically had in the place where it appeared.' The image of this Virgin Mary was found at the end of the 14th century buried in a cave on the hill that was then in the municipal district of Nieva. Its name, in fact, means 'subterranean' in old Castilian. As Lorenzo continues to explain, and as we indeed read on the cartouche of this painting, the image was the 'special protector against storms and hail [and] was fundamental in an agrarian context which faced adverse weather.' Its worship spread to other areas of Spain such as Navarra and Logroño, Lorenzo continues to report, 'shepherds and sailors [...], the former through migration, the latter by sailing the sea, spread her virtues and devotion to places such as Argentina, Bolivia, and the Philippines, where a ninth example which has been moved to an unknown location is documented.' Of the eight painted depictions in the parish church in Segovia, we would like to highlight the most complex of those preserved, from the first half of the 18th century, where the Virgin of Soterraña with the Child in her left arm is depicted, along with Ensign Alonso del Canto y Ocampo, conqueror of the Philippines in 1563. It is a votive offering made a century after the death of the ensign to whom it is dedicated, which adds additional interest to the painting, as Josemi Lorenzo affirms. Another highlight from amongst these eight is the True Portrait of the Virgin of Soterraña, 'exhibited in the northern end' of the church, which, was donated by Alejo Bonifaz and painted in San Luis de Potosí in 1785. With the painting we have in the auction, added to the existing ones, we reach a dozen pictorial representations of this curious Marian advocation. Taking into account the expansion of the worship of the Virgin that we mentioned and that the painting was created in Potosí in 1785, it is reasonable to assume that this painting, from a similar time, came from the same cultural nucleus. Without a doubt, this True Portrait, with the accompanying angels and the liturgical scenery with candlesticks, candelabra, and drapery, is more elaborate than the True Portrait in the church.   Reference bibliography: - Lorenzo Arribas, Josemi. (2016). La iglesia de Santa María la Real de Nieva (Segovia). Epigrafía en la portada norte; Lucas el estucador; exvotos pintados; un Niño montañesino, y un lienzo devocional de la Virgen de la Soterraña. Biblioteca. Estudio e investigación', 31, 197-218.