Virgin of Bethlehem

Due to the fame of their miraculous powers, many carved wooden devotional images in the Peruvian Andes had a cult following extending beyond the sanctuaries or their original villages. As a result, the faithful and the grateful pilgrims ordered copies on canvas, engravings or small wood carvings that were “touched” by the original as a way of transferring their prodigious effects. This canvas represents one of those effigies: Our Lady of Bethlehem, patron of the city of Cusco. Yet this “true portrait” has not been taken directly from the image but from an earlier engraving or pictorial model. In this painting, the wood sculptures of the Virgin and the Christ are both adorned in heavy dresses that give them a triangular look. The presence of little angels and cherub’s heads lends the scene the flavor of a true celestial apparition, underlining the role of the images as intermediaries between the human and the divine. (RK)