The Mystic Betrothal of Saint Rose of Lima

Nicolás Correa, a painter of mulatto extraction, followed in the footsteps of his father, José Correa, and his uncle, Juan Correa. He handled religious themes, but also produced a Plan of the City of México which is kept in the National History Museum. Rose of Lima, a Dominican nun, was the first American saint and received the title of Patron Saint of America, the Philippines and the Indies thanks to the rapid growth of her cult. This work depicts the passage from the Apocrypha in which Saint Rose, afflicted at having been left without a palm frond at the Palm Sunday celebration, went to pray in the Chapel of the Rosary at the Convent of Saint Dominic in Lima, where the Virgin and Child appeared to her. To comfort her, the Child told her that he wanted her to be his wife and she accepted. The artist presents the scene where the saint finds herself surrounded by roses scattered all over the floor. The Child and his Mother appear to her again and ask her to pick up some of the flowers. Correa depicts the saint just as she is giving a white rose to the Child and being given a rosary by the Virgin. The author symbolizes the consummation of the mystic union by depicting an angel on the left-hand side of his work holding a flower-framed tablet bearing the words rosa/cordis mei/tv mihi/sponsa/esto (Beloved Rosa, I wish you to be my wife), while two angels appear in the upper right-hand corner holding a gold-framed tablet that reads ancilla/tva/domine/mi iesv (Here is your servant, Lord, your slave ready to serve you always). After hanging in the Convent of the Incarnation, this work entered the San Carlos Academy. It was shown at the Philadelphia Universal Exhibition in 1876 and later formed part of the collection of the San Diego Viceregal Painting Gallery, becoming part of the MUNAL'S collection in the year 2000.