The Death of Bernardina Madrueño

For a while this piece was thought, due to its formal features, to have been painted by José María Estrada, but this attribution has never been corroborated. Commissioned from a Jaliscan artist by the dead woman´s brother, it depicts Bernardina Madrueño moments after her death. On the left lies the body with its hands crossed, while, next to it, two griefstricken women, one holding a veil and the other a large candle and a cross, stare at her. The personage in the center of the composition is probably the dead woman`s brother, who also stares at her, inconsolable, holding a glass and a pitcher. On the right, a man and three women, very moved by the subject's death, are shown at prayer. The artist painstakingly depicts both the attire and the faces of the personages portrayed. However, his handling of perspective is not very proficient, especially when it comes to the positioning of Bernardinas body. The somber palette mainly consists of greens, blacks, whites and browns, with little variation in tone, though this does not detract from the impact of the composition. The inscription at the bottom of the canvas bears witness to the brother's inability to resign himself to the subject's death. Unlike the inscriptions in portrayals of dead children, which list only the name and age of the subject, the one in the present work reproaches death, declaring "Horrid death... you have carried away my sister…” Contrary to the dictates of the time regarding the behavior of relatives when a child died, which held that weeping hampered the latter´s transportation to heaven as an angel, this work depicts the pain and frustration attendant on the death of an adult. It entered the MUNAL, as part of the latter´s founding endowment, in 1982.