The Soul of the Virgin Mary
An allegorical portrait — Mary's soul, not her body, rendered as a crowned figure of light.
- Work
- Oil and gold on canvas
- Artist / creator
- Cusco School (anonymous)
- Origin & date
- Peru (Cuzco), 18th century
- Held by
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York — The American Wing (gift of James Ming Bo Li and He Xiaoyuli, in honor of James Kung Wei Li, 2018)
Format
The full-resolution scan — yours to print, study, and keep.
Size
$24.00
The story
This is a rarer devotional type: not a portrait of a specific miracle-working statue, but an allegory of Mary's soul itself — a theological subject (her Immaculate purity, imagined as a luminous inner figure) translated into the same gold-leaf, crowned-Virgin visual vocabulary used for the pilgrimage icons.
It shows how flexible the Cusco School's toolkit had become by the 18th century: the brocateado technique, the crown, the aureole of gold rays — all developed for portraying specific named Virgins — get redeployed here for a purely doctrinal, non-narrative subject. Style had become a language for holiness in general, not just for particular shrines.
A quieter, more introspective piece than the militia angels or the great pilgrimage Virgins — worth sitting with.
About this reproduction
- • Faithful reproduction of a public-domain work, sourced from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York — The American Wing (gift of James Ming Bo Li and He Xiaoyuli, in honor of James Kung Wei 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
Our Lady of Cocharcas
The Virgin of a Peruvian mountain shrine, built up in real gold leaf.
Our Lady of Guápulo
A pilgrimage Virgin from the hills above Quito, painted in full Cusco gold.
Our Lady of Mercy, called "The Pilgrim of Quito"
The Virgin as an actual traveler — staff, cloak, and the road still in her feet.