The work being presented here should be placed within the Quito school of the 17th century. In terms of its technical, aesthetic and stylistic haracteristics, one might well attribute it to Miguel de Santiago, who was born in Quito in around 1620. This artist, who was one of the major exponents of the painting produced in the colony, was the most important painter in the court of Quito. The son of mestizo parents, he was legally adopted by Hernando de Santiago between 1633 and 1636. He enjoyed the patronage of the Augustinian friar Basilio de Ribera, who would commission him to undertake the canvasses of the life of Saint Augustine when the artist was about 20 years old. The painter married Andrea de Cisneros Alvarado in 1681 and died on 5 January 1706.

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