Saint Barbara
The patron saint invoked against sudden death and lightning, painted in Quito rather than Cusco.
- Work
- Oil on canvas
- Artist / creator
- Anonymous painter
- Origin & date
- Ecuador (Quito), last quarter 18th century
- Held by
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York — The American Wing (gift of Warren Ming Tao Li, in honor of James Kung Wei Li and Julie Chu Lu Li, 2018)
Format
The full-resolution scan — yours to print, study, and keep.
Size
$24.00
The story
Barbara — martyred, in legend, by her own father, and ever after invoked against lightning, fire, and sudden death — was a widely venerated protector-saint across the Catholic world; this version comes from workshops in Quito, Ecuador, rather than Cusco proper, part of the same broader Andean colonial visual language exported across the viceroyalty's major cities.
Her traditional attribute, a tower with three windows (a reference to the Trinity, from her legend), is a useful reminder that colonial saint portraits were built from a shared, internationally legible symbol system — a viewer anywhere in the Catholic world could identify her by the tower alone.
About this reproduction
- • Faithful reproduction of a public-domain work, sourced from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York — The American Wing (gift of Warren Ming Tao Li, in honor of James Kung Wei Li and Julie Chu Lu Li, 2018)’s open-access release.
- • Printed to order on EMA matte art paper, 200gsm. The heirloom frame is gold, under acrylic, with no mount.
- • Color-managed to the source scan.
- • Ships in 5–9 business days; satisfaction guarantee.
From the same collection
Christ Carrying the Cross, called "The Lord of the Fall"
Christ collapsed under the weight of the cross — one of the tradition's most devastating images.
Saint Lucy
The martyr of Syracuse, patron of sight, carrying the eyes taken from her.
Adam and Eve in Paradise
Genesis, rendered as an Andean garden — the first sin, before the fall.