Virgin and Child with St Francis of Paola, St john and St Roch

(Joaquin Caraballo)

Of Portugese origin, Joaquin Caraballo worked in Potosi in the second half of the eighteenth century, during the time when Potosi was a thriving centre of wealth and riches, thanks to the silver mines discovered in the mountains by the Spanish. This wealth attracted numerous artists, notably Melchor Pérez Holguin who opened an important workshop in Potosi where Gaspar de Bernio worked, who would, himself, become the master of both Joaquin Caraballo and Nicolas Cruz around 1760. The painting has a particular style. The outline is very pronounced, the lines curve, there is no trace of paintbrush strokes and the pictoral layer is very fine. The composition from the Spanish Baroque, concentrates the saints around the Virgin and the Child with a strange tendency to shrink the characters. The particular choice of colours, notably the garment of the Virgin and the greens of the angels break away from an intense yellow background. These colours associated with precision and the keenness of detail give this painting an expressive and ascetic character.

Neret-Minet & Tessier, Paris, October 25 213.