JOSÉ PÁEZ (Mexico, 1720 - 1790) and SCHOOL. "Screen with religious scenes". Twelve oil paintings on canvas mounted on a wooden screen. Two of the scenes are signed. Sizes: 156 x 49 cm (each canvas); 206 x 57 cm (each sheet); 206 x 228 cm (total). Four-leaf screen with a wooden structure, with carved profiles, on which a total of twelve paintings on canvas have been mounted, three on each leaf. All of them are of religious themes, albeit with very different compositions. We see images of saints alone with their attributes or with angels, static, and also depictions of the Virgin and complex narrative scenes from the Old and New Testaments, such as the story of Samson and Delilah. The canvases depict The Virgin and God the Father, The Immaculate Conception, Saint Peter, Saint Magdalene of Pazzi, Saint Peter of Alcantara, Saint Enes, the Holy Family, Saint Innocence, The Trinity, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Saint John Nepomuk and Doctors of the Church, Saint Christopher, and Samson and Delilah. José de Paéz was a very prolific painter, belonging to the generation after Miguel Cabrera. He produced excellent portraits and caste paintings, as well as religious compositions of various sizes, from nuns' coats of arms to huge canvases covering entire walls. Although his works are distributed in churches in Mexico and Peru, he is known to have exported much of his output. He trained with the painter Nicolás Enríquez, and worked throughout his life in his studio in Mexico City. It is not known whether Paez travelled abroad, although the fame of his work is known, given the works by him that exist in various American countries. He mainly worked on commissions for various orders of the viceroyalty of New Spain, the richest of the crown at the time. He is represented in the Andrés Blastein Collection, the Museo de la Historia Mexicana, the Museo de América in Madrid, the Soumaya in Mexico, the Museo de la Casa de Colón in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the National Museum of Catholic Art and History in New York, among others. The second half of the 18th century in New Spain was marked by an economic boom, which meant that aristocrats and religious orders had sufficient resources to construct new buildings or to renovate existing ones. Thus, the demand for religious art increased, as did the demand for portraiture and caste painting. It was during this period of abundant demand that José Páez, one of the most outstanding exponents of the 18th-century New Spain school, developed his work. His style is classicist, with a predominance of drawing, a marked and expressive line that gives the figures a sculptural corporeality. However, he does not neglect colouring, which is softly toned and carefully studied, restrained and balanced, as can be seen in this group of canvases. Also noteworthy is the skilful use of lighting, which subtly models the figures, giving them volume and presence in space, without the need to resort to complex perspectival constructions.