3-002-696 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

An Allegory of Saint Rose of Lima, c1730-1760. This is an allegorical painting of Saint Rose of Lima (1586-1617), the first American-born saint, flanked by two adult figures below, and by the Infant Jesus and flying angels and seraphim above. The work draws very directly on the engraved frontispiece of a 1511 collection of sonnets on St. Rose’s life by the Spanish writer Luis Antonio de Oviedo y Herrera. In that engraving, the saint, as in this painting, appears to sprout from a rose, and holds a halo of roses in one hand in which appears the baby Jesus. Her other hand holds an anchor, with the cathedral of Lima, Peru, balanced on its tines, and the word 'Lima' written below.