A Magnificent Gilt Wood Mirrored Frame

Peruvian, likely Cuzco, mid-18th Century
37 x 50 inches (94 x 127 cm),

Housing a Cuzco School painting, 18th Century


The Holy Family and the Infant Saint John the Baptist Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child

Oil on canvas, unlined, on a strainer
33 ¼ x 28 inches (84.5 x 71.5 cm)

Provenance:

Private Collection, Argentina; there acquired by

Mr. and Mrs. Ernest T. Harper, New York, by 1960; by descent to:

Mr. and Mrs. Alan Harper, New York, until 2024.

This extraordinary mirrored frame is an exuberant and nearly perfectly preserved example of Andean 18th-century decorative art. Pierced mirrored rosettes surrounding floral motifs are set against mirrored surrounds along a broad frieze bordered within and without by elaborate raised moldings, inlaid by small shaped mirrors. Repeating ornamental motifs reflecting both Spanish and indigenous designs surround both the inside panel and the exterior perimeter, the four corners of which are punctuated by mirrored rosettes.

Glass mirrors were unknown to the indigenous population of the Americas prior to the arrival of Europeans (obsidian mirrors had been prized objects). Their introduction carried with it both mystical and spiritual associations and were employed most famously in the decoration of the Church of Santa Clara in Cuzco.

Within the central field of the frame is an 18th-century painting depicting the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, and the young Saint John the Baptist adoring the sleeping Christ Child. While this is fine example of the art of the Cuzco School and a work roughly contemporary with the frame, it is unlikely to have been originally intended for the present ensemble as the composition has clearly been reduced in size. (The canvas has been trimmed on three sides, slightly on the left and right, halving the decorative trellis of flowers, and perhaps more radically at the bottom, as indicated by the continuation of the composition on the tacking edge). Originally, the frame may have contained a large single-pane mirror, a sculptural relief, or another painting.

Like so many paintings of the period, the Holy Family and the Infant Saint John the Baptist Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child is a stylized and decorative treatment of its sacred subject, one consonant with the ornamental preferences of the arts in the city, yet with a legibility permitting the communication of its religious content to the viewer. It stands out for the masterful gilding of the Virgin’s crown, the haloes, and other ornamentation in the painting. Even if not originally belonging to the frame that surrounds it, the painting is the perfect complement to this masterpiece of Viceregal decorative art.