La Caridad en los Primeros Tiempos de la Iglesia by Jose María Ibarrarán y PonceMuseo Nacional de Arte
Jose María Ibarrarán y Ponce created this painting in 1883, one year before the first re-election of Mexican politician Porfirio Díaz.
A policy of making peace with the Church had already been introduced by president Díaz. Therefore, the early Christian reference in this work shows the need by the Church to re-connect with its origins.
In the corner of a dungeon, a half-naked old man, chained and loaded with fetters, is lying on the floor with his back against the wall.
Two men have come to comfort him in prison: one of them, standing on the left, offers him a basket of bread and fish – a possible symbol of the viaticum (a religious service for the sick)...
...the other, with gray hair and beard, is on his knees and is in the act of throwing a shawl of brown wool over the man’s shoulders and back.
This man wears a grey tunic and a pallium (a garment consisting of a strip of white cloth made with the wool of two lambs). From this outfit, it is assumed that this man is a bishop.
The pallium is usually adorned with black crosses but here appears a swastika – a widespread sun symbol that, in this case, refers to Christ.
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