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A narrative ex-voto painted in oil on tin in 1952 in Arandas, Jalisco, for Adela López L. Her daughter fell ill with an infection in the stomach, and Adela gave thanks to San Miguel Arcángel for healing her. The girl’s own studio photograph is mounted into the panel.
San Miguel stands at left against great cream wings, holding a long staff topped with a cross in his right hand and the scales of judgment in his left. He wears a dark blue cap with a red band and a pink feather plume, a blue tunic tied with green ribbons, a red cloak at his shoulder, a red pleated skirt over full green breeches, and blue boots cuffed in red. Beneath his feet the horned red devil lies sprawled in red and yellow flames, outlined in black. The inscription runs down the center in green lettering on a blue-green ground. It measures 12.5 inches wide by 9 inches high (31.8 x 22.9 cm).
At right, set off by a border of painted red and yellow dots, is the girl’s black-and-white studio portrait. She sits on a carved studio chair in a ruffled white dress, white socks and strap shoes, her hair cut in a bob with bangs. The studio’s embossed stamp shows at the lower right corner of the print. Ex-votos that carry a photograph of the person healed are uncommon.
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:
“ADela lopez L. Dai gracias.. A San Miguel Arcangel. Par Hacer el milagra. De Sanar a mi Hija De Una infeccián In el estamaga. con gratiTud 1952 ARandas Jal. Milagra concevida gracias San Miguel Arcangel”
In English:
“I, Adela López L., give thanks to San Miguel Arcángel for working the miracle of healing my daughter of an infection in the stomach. With gratitude, 1952, Arandas, Jalisco. Miracle granted. Thank you, San Miguel Arcángel.”
The spelling is the painter’s own. He forms o’s like a’s, which gives Dai for doy, Par for por, milagra for milagro, infeccián for infección and estamaga for estómago. He also writes In for en and concevida for concedido, and breaks gratitud across the line. 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. A hanging hole is punched through the inscription field at top, beside the first word, with a ring of paint loss to bare tin. Fine craquelure runs through the blue-green ground, the wings and the figure. There are scattered pinpoint losses, a small dark loss where the right wing meets the flames, light edge wear and a slight lift at the lower right corner. The photograph is intact and firmly mounted, with the studio’s embossed stamp at its lower right corner.
The verso is bare tin with rust trails along the top edge and down the left third, a vertical crease line and light waviness in the sheet.
Appraisal
Grade: A
This is a complete narrative ex-voto: dated, named and placed, painted for a mother in Arandas, Jalisco. It carries the healed girl’s own studio photograph, a feature few ex-votos of the period have, and San Miguel standing over the devil is one of the strongest images in the tradition. Graded against realized sales of this painter’s work.
Gallery replacement value: $800. 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 | $16 – $47
United Kingdom | 0% | 5% reduced-rate import VAT on works of art | about $16
European Union | 0% | 5.5% – 13.5% reduced rate, set by your country | $17 – $42
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
Price
$310
