María Josefa Sánchez Spain, active 1639-1652
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Acquired by the Art Gallery of Ontario - Toronto
This cell cross is an exceptional work within the corpus of devotional objects produced by women artists in Golden Age Spain. Its maker is one of the few Spanish women artists of the seventeenth century of whom several signed works are known. Her activity is documented between 1639 and 1652 and is characterised by the production of small crosses painted in oil on wood.
Very little is known about her, she is thought to have been of Castilian origin, of comfortable social standing, and closely connected with religious circles, particularly Franciscan ones. Signed and dated 1646, the present cross joins a small group of signed works by the artist, including examples preserved in the Monastery of San Antonio el Real in Segovia and in the Meadows Museum in Dallas. Together, these works form a compact corpus of exceptional interest, both for their rarity and for their contribution to the study of women artists in the Hispanic Baroque. It is therefore unsurprising that the present example immediately attracted the attention of a museum.
Literature
Unpublished work.