Luis Lagarto, one of the best Mannerist illuminators of the Hispanic world and a prolific artist who created works of all genres: decorative capital letters in choir books, executory letters, reliquaries, and stunning miniatures on vellum, traced in very fine gold lines and colorful tones. A man of culture, he made a great contribution to the arts in New Spain, Spain, and to the artistic style of his time, due to his wonderful designs and representations which were unparalleled in the New World. Being born in Seville, and probably trained in Italy, Luis Lagarto was the spearhead of a family dynasty of artists who flourished in Mexico.

In the composition of this painting on vellum, with Lagarto's typical colors and drawing, the "Virgin Mary" holds the "Divine Child" in her lap, in a moment in his childhood when he enjoys playing - he holds a small scale farmhand saw in his small hands (an essential carpentry tool used to saw trunks to make boards and planks). Lagarto, therefore, does not depart from the models that recreated this theme before or after his times, such as the Spanish artists José de Ribera or Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, the Flemish artist Gerard van Honthorst, or the French artist George La Tour, just to mention a few. Although most painters included only Saint Joseph and Infant Jesus, with the tools his father would use to teach him this trade, many other artists, such as Lagarto, gave preference only to the Virgin and her child.

read essay