Holy Guardian Angel

In the upper part of the eastern and western walls of the presbytery of what is now the Santa Clara Museum, a series of paintings of angels and archangels are preserved, among which we find that of the Holy Guardian Angel.

One of these categories is that of angels. According to Santiago de la Voragine (1230-1298), these beings are closer to the earthly world, so they act as intermediaries between God and humans and protect them from their conception till their death.

The guardian angel was added to this category after emerging as a devotional figure in the 16^th century. It was then that the first moral treatises related to the angelic theme were composed. In them, the protective function of these beings was established.

According to tradition, the guardian angel oversees guiding his guarded on the right path so that it is easier for him to reach Heaven. To this end, prayer became a fundamental element that allowed connection with God.

The guardian angel is usually shown accompanied by a child, a symbol of humanity. In the image in the Museum, a small, half-naked young man, kneeling with his hands in prayer, contemplates the angelic figure in front of him.

The angel, with his face directed towards the child, points with his left hand towards an opening between a cluster of clouds in the sky, from which a golden light emerges, making evident the divine presence in the image.

In his right hand, the angel holds a golden censer, an element that in the various Catholic ceremonies fulfills the function of scenting and cleansing the sacred environments and serving to praise God.

In the lower right corner of the image is an inscription confirming the identity of the angel depicted. 

The presence of this inscription recurs in seven paintings of the series. This characteristic, along with the similarity of the pictorial style, means that this seven works are attributed to the same author. The other two had to be done by other hands.

Representations of this type were very common in colonial painting in Cuzco and Upper Peru, while in New Granada they were scarce. Its existence is probably related to the Brotherhood of the Archangel Michael, founded in the former convent of Santa Clara in 1667.