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Santa Barbara
ca. 1680-1690
Unidentified Puerto Rican Artist
oil on wood panel
10 7/8 x 8 1/4 in. (27.6 x 21.0 cm.)
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Teodoro Vidal Collection
1996.91.9
Smithsonian American Art Museum
3rd Floor, Luce Foundation Center
Puerto Ricans depicted religious subjects for homes and churches, although painted images were less common than carved wooden saints. This small panel was probably created as one of several for the front of a pulpit or altarpiece in a church or a private chapel. Saint Barbara is especially revered in Puerto Rico, because she is believed to protect against hurricanes, which are an annual threat to the island. She is represented here with her symbols: a crown, a palm of martyrs, and the tower with three windows where she was incarcerated before being beheaded at her father’s order.
For more information about this work visit the Luce Foundation Center.
Read research notes for Santa Barbara. (pdf)
Keywords
Architecture Exterior - civic - tower
Object - foliage - palm
Religion - martyr
Religion - saint - St. Barbara
painting
paint - oil
wood
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