84 - Nicolás Correa (Mexico, 1657 – c. 1708)

Nicolás Correa (Mexico, 1657 – c. 1708) The Workshop of Nazareth and The Resurrection Pair of oil paintings on panel. Both signed. 98 × 116 cm each. This pair of paintings was included in the exhibition Visiones de América. Arte desde el confín del mundo (Visions of America: Art from the Edge of the World), held at the Casa del Cordón in Burgos in 2018. They are reproduced on pages 241 and 242 of the catalogue. The nephew of the painter Juan Correa, Nicolás specialised in enconchado painting, mastering this distinctive technique, which involves inlaying small fragments of mother-of-pearl into the painted surface to create luminous, iridescent effects and a distinctive lustre. Together with the workshop of the González brothers, his was one of the two leading exponents of this genre. The Hispanic Society of America holds Nicolás Correa’s The Marriage at Cana (Mexico, 1693, inv. LA2158), executed using the enconchado technique. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) houses The Investiture of Saint Ildephonsus with the Chasuble (c. 1700, inv. M.2017.85), attributed to the painter, an oil painting on canvas mounted on wood and embellished with mother-of-pearl inlay. Meanwhile, the Museo Nacional de Arte in Mexico City displays Correa’s The Mystical Marriage of Saint Rose of Lima (1691, inv. 17524) in its permanent collection. This magnificent pair of panel paintings is signed by Correa himself, a distinguished New Spanish Baroque painter active between the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries (c. 1660–1730), who belonged to an important family of artists that included his father, José Correa, and his uncle, Juan Correa. This exceptional pair belongs to the pictorial tradition of New Spain, characterised by a strong religious influence, dynamic compositions, and meticulous treatment of figures and Catholic iconography. Both paintings have an explicitly religious subject: The Workshop of Nazareth and The Resurrection. Correa devoted much of his artistic production to religious themes, and these two works depict distinctly Christological episodes from the Bible, one of them imbued with mystical overtones. Our Workshop of Nazareth, also known as The House of Nazareth, is a viceregal adaptation inspired primarily by the celebrated painting The House of Nazareth (1630) by the Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbarán. Unlike European versions, which tend to focus on the Virgin and Child, New Spanish paintings such as ours often place Saint Joseph prominently alongside Jesus, working side by side with him. Here, Jesus and his earthly father occupy the centre of the composition, sawing a large wooden beam together — perhaps an allusion to the Cross on which Christ would die, foreshadowing his Passion. They are surrounded by carpentry tools, implements, and material details that evoke the workshop’s daily activities, sometimes departing from the austerity or mystical character of the original European models. Beside them, an angel warms a pot of soup over a glowing brazier. The canonical Gospels, including Luke 2:51, merely state that Jesus “was subject to his parents” in Nazareth, spending most of his earthly life in the obscurity of ordinary work before beginning his public ministry. The central room opens through two doorways onto two further spaces. To the left lies the dining room or hall, containing another display cabinet filled with carpentry tools and two angels at play. To the right is the couple’s bedchamber, with a canopied bed where Mary sits embroidering a piece of white cloth. Other pieces of white fabric await her in a basket on a side table, symbolising her purity. Studies by art historians such as Jorge Luis Merlo suggest that these pictorial adaptations were connected with the carpenters’ guild in New Spain, whose members adopted the image of Saint Joseph as a means of elevating and honouring their craft. The biblical episode depicted in the second painting is one of the most important subjects in Christian iconography: the Resurrection of the Son of God and, through it, the redemption of all believers. Following the account in Matthew 28, Correa simplifies the Gospel narrative and omits the angel described by the Evangelist, who is usually a standard element in depictions of the scene. Christ occupies the centre of the panel, rising above the tomb and seemingly suspended within a great burst of golden light. Six soldiers flank the Risen Christ. Correa has portrayed them as seventeenth-century soldiers, dressed in gleaming armour reminiscent of that worn by the Spanish tercios. Nicolás Correa, nephew of the painter Juan Correa, specialised in enconchado painting, demonstrating great mastery of this unique technique, which involves inlaying small fragments of mother of pearl into the painted surface to create effects of light, iridescence and a distinctive lustre. Alongside the workshop of the González brothers, he was one of the two leading exponents of thi