An ex-voto painted in oil on tin in 1952 for Macario Reyes Tame López of Tonalá, Jalisco, giving thanks to the Virgen del Carmen for a miracle granted on May 18.
The Virgen del Carmen fills the panel, dark hair falling to her shoulders, in a brown Carmelite habit bearing the gold shield of the order under a cream cloak. Two winged angels, one in red and one in blue, hold a great gold crown above her head. She carries the Christ Child in a lilac robe on one arm and lowers a cross and scapular toward the souls below with the other. In the flames at either side, two souls in broken chains reach up to her, and between them two freed souls rise on clouds with their hands joined in prayer. The inscription runs across a blue-green band at the foot. It measures 6 inches wide by 11.5 inches high.
It comes from the same source as the rest of my retablos: one unknown painter who never signed his work and has since died. Families commissioned his pieces and took them to their village churches.
An elderly custodian at one of those churches has been collecting this painter's work for decades. A picker who travels the small village churches brought it to my dealer, and my dealer brought it to me.
None of those links is documented on paper, so I give it to you as the path it traveled, not as a chain of title.
The inscription
As painted:
"Milagra concevidu: Tonala Jal. 1952. Macario reyez Tamelopez maya 18 con mucHa gratitud...."
In English:
"A miracle granted. Tonalá, Jalisco, 1952. Macario Reyes Tame López. May 18. With much gratitude."
The spelling is the painter's own. Milagra, concevidu and maya show his habit of forming o's like a's and u's, and concevidu stands for concedido. Reyez stands for Reyes, and Jal. is his abbreviation for Jalisco. Irregularities like these are part of what makes the piece genuine.
Condition
Good for its age. The paint is stable, the inscription is fully legible, and the impasto on the cloak, flames and clouds is intact.
There is a nail hole at top center through the crown, with a small loss around it. Small raised bumps sit in the paint across the green ground, and fine red-brown speckling runs through the upper field. There is a small loss at the upper right corner, light wear on the blue drapery of the right-hand angel, and light scratches over the surface.
The verso is bare tin, heavily rusted across the upper half and mottled below, with traces of red paint along the edges.
Appraisal
Grade: B+
A dated, placed and named ex-voto with a full Carmelite program: the crowning angels, the Child, the scapular and the souls released from purgatory, all painted with care. The inscription records the gratitude but not the specific miracle, which holds it just below the top grade. Graded against realized sales of this painter's work.
Gallery replacement value: $500, what it would cost to replace this piece through a gallery, for insurance and estate purposes.
A note on the photographs
One photograph shows the retablo staged for scale. Only the retablo is included.
Shipping and import fees
The price includes DHL Express shipping anywhere in the world, with tracking, packed by Diseños de Cartón in Guadalajara.
Import duty and tax are the buyer's responsibility. Tariff code 9701.91, hand-painted original art. Most markets let it in duty-free, and it qualifies for a reduced tax rate wherever one exists.
When it arrives, open the box along the seams; never cut down into it.
If your delivery country differs from your account country, message me before purchasing.
Destination | Import duty | Import tax | Estimated total
United States | 0% | none collected at import | $0
Canada | 0% | 5% GST, or 13–15% HST by province | $14 – $42
United Kingdom | 0% | 5% reduced-rate import VAT on works of art | about $14
European Union | 0% | 5.5% – 13.5% reduced rate, set by your country | $16 – $38
Australia | none on orders under AUD 1,000 | 10% GST, charged at checkout | about $28, paid at checkout
Where tax is collected at delivery, DHL adds a small advancement fee, typically $12 to $20.
Questions
You will always reach a real person, never AI.
God bless,
Ricardo Ivan Cardenas EMBA
St. Joseph's University New York Business School Graduate
Culture: Mexican
Date of Creation: 1952
Dimensions: 6" W x 11.5" H (15 x 29 cm)
Subject: Virgen del Carmen with the souls in purgatory, thanksgiving for a miracle granted
Material: Hand-Painted Oil on Tin
Region of Origin: Tonalá, Jalisco, Mexico