The Guardian Angel

Features typifying the oeuvre of Luis Juárez, such as the working and physiognomy of the angel, can be seen in this piece, which is one of the rare examples of a painting from the Viceregal period in which children appear. The child, who is looking towards the viewer, elegantly dressed, with a ruff around his neck and a hat in his left hand, is standing erect on o a globe, indicating that he is of high social status, the heir of a noble house or, even, the son of a king. The landscape is one of the most mysterious features of this work, depicting a valley with a low horizon which is lit up by the heavenly light that emerges from the upper right-hand comer and grows darker as it nears the bottom left-hand corner, where there is a bejeweled woman naked to the waist, perhaps a soul in purgatory, and a devil with an implement in his hand, apparently betokening evil. At the center of the work, the standing angel, who seems to be separating good from evil and light from darkness, looks at the child, pointing with his left hand at the light that comes from the heavens and preventing him, with the flaming sword he holds in his right hand, from approaching the dark figures, as if he wanted to usher his soul into the presence of God, keeping him far from all temptation and sparing him the fires of purgatory. This work passed to the MUNAL from the San Diego Viceregal Painting Gallery in the year 2000.