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Description
A narrative ex-voto painted in oil on tin in 1952 in Teocaltiche, Jalisco, for Demetrio González Pérez. He gives thanks to the Ánima Sola, the lone soul in purgatory, because his wife survived heart surgery after her doctor said she would not live long.
The panel is divided in two. At right, the Ánima Sola rises from a bank of red, orange and yellow flames, painted in thick raised strokes that stand up from the tin. The soul is bare-chested with hands clasped in prayer, black chains hanging from the wrists, and wears a monk’s tonsure, where most images of the Ánima Sola show a woman. Behind the figure is a teal stone-block wall outlined in black, and below runs a black band lettered LA ANIMA SOlA in cream. At left, the inscription is lettered in green on an ochre ground, and beneath it two figures kneel with their backs to us, one with both arms raised and one beside a tall lit candle. It measures 12 inches wide by 11 inches high (30.5 x 28 cm).
It comes from the same source as the rest of my retablos: one unknown painter who never signed his work and has since died. Families commissioned his pieces and took them to their village churches.
An elderly custodian at one of those churches has been collecting this painter’s work for decades. A picker who travels the small village churches brought it to my dealer, and my dealer brought it to me.
None of those links is documented on paper, so I give it to you as the path it traveled, not as a chain of title.
The inscription
As painted:
“Anima Del Purga- Taria, Damas gra- cias. Mi espasa Fue operada del carazán El DR. Dijo que Hiba a vivir paco. El mila- gro llego. la aperacian Fue Un éxiTo. ella Sano Milagro cancevido TeocalTicHe, Jal.... 1952: DemeTrio Gon- zalez Perez.”
In English:
“Soul of Purgatory, we give thanks. My wife had heart surgery. The doctor said she would not live long. The miracle came: the operation was a success, and she recovered. Miracle granted. Teocaltiche, Jalisco, 1952. Demetrio González Pérez.”
The spelling is the painter’s own. His habit of forming o’s like a’s shows in Damas for damos, espasa for esposa, carazán for corazón, paco for poco, aperacian for operación and Purga-Taria for Purgatorio. He writes Hiba for iba, Sano for sanó and cancevido for concedido, and the title band reads SOlA with a small l. Irregularities like these are part of what makes the piece genuine.
Condition
The paint is stable, the colors are strong and the inscription is fully legible. The flames are built up in thick raised paint, with two pinpoint losses at right. A fine red-orange speckle runs across the ochre ground of the inscription panel. There is a punched hanging hole at the top edge of the scene, small flake losses and edge wear along the right edge and lower right corner, and light scratches and a softly bent corner at lower left.
The verso is bare tin with rust staining, tide marks and scattered pitting, and a few drips of red and teal paint at the edges.
Appraisal
Grade: A
This is a complete narrative ex-voto: dated, named and placed, painted for a family in Teocaltiche, Jalisco. It records a wife brought through heart surgery against her doctor’s prognosis, a strong collector narrative. The Ánima Sola is a less common subject than the Virgin or the saints, and here the soul wears a monk’s tonsure, set in flames worked in heavy raised paint. The date gives the year only, without the day or month. Graded against realized sales of this painter’s work.
Gallery replacement value: $775. This is what it would cost to replace this piece through a gallery, for insurance and estate purposes.
About the photographs
Some photographs show the retablo staged in a home setting. Those backgrounds are digitally created only to help you imagine the piece in a room. The painting itself is unaltered and untouched in every image. Plain-background photographs of the actual piece are included as well. Only the retablo is included.
Shipping and import fees
The price includes DHL Express shipping anywhere in the world, with tracking. The piece is packed by Diseños de Cartón in Guadalajara.
Import duty and tax are the buyer’s responsibility. The tariff code is 9701.91, hand-painted original art. Most markets let it in duty-free, and it qualifies for a reduced tax rate wherever one exists.
When it arrives, open the box along the seams; never cut down into it.
If your delivery country differs from your account country, message me before purchasing.
Destination | Import duty | Import tax | Estimated total
United States | 0% | none collected at import | $0
Canada | 0% | 5% GST, or 13–15% HST by province | $15 – $46
United Kingdom | 0% | 5% reduced-rate import VAT on works of art | about $15
European Union | 0% | 5.5% – 13.5% reduced rate, set by your country | $17 – $41
Australia | none on orders under AUD 1,000 | 10% GST, charged at checkout | about $31, paid at checkout
Where tax is collected at delivery, DHL adds a small advancement fee, typically $12 to $20.
Questions
You will always reach a real person, never AI.
God bless,
Ricardo Ivan Cardenas EMBA
St. Joseph’s University New York Business School Graduate
