Miracles of the Blessed Salvador of Horta

This painting depicts one of the miraculous cures effected by Saint Salvador of Horta, a Franciscan friar with many sick, poor and deformed followers whose miraculous powers became so widely known that, oftentimes, the crowds of needy people who gathered to beg for his help so disturbed the peace of his monastery that he was transferred from one place to another - a fact that the painter reminds us of by including six chapels at some time inhabited by the saint in the upper right hand corner of the painting. The bottom part of the work, which is taken up by the multitude of sick people, is highly expressive, above all with regard to the expressions and positioning of the figures. The present composition is a derivative of The Mímeles of Saint Francis Xavier, a work commissioned from Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) by the Jesuits of the city of Antwerp. However, it should be stressed that neo-Hispanic painters did not always make exact copies of prior works, selecting those elements that best suited their own and local tastes. The specialists have noted traces of the studio of José Juárez in this work -more precisely those of his student and heir, Antonio Rodríguez and of Baltasar de Echave y Rioja, who was working in the said studio around 1660. The painting originally hung on one of the three staircases of the Franciscan Convent in México City, passing from the San Diego Viceregal Painting Gallery to the MUNAL in the year 2000, to form part of the latter’s collection.