José Rafael Aragón
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel
Retablo, circa 1830
Paint on wood panel
Denver Art Museum
In the lower part of the panel is the artist's folk-inspired take on the conventional image of souls in the fire of Purgatory, in this case reaching up to the scapulars in the hands of the Virgin and the Christ Child. This is a reference to the "Sabbatine Privilege," by which it was believed that those who wore the brown scapular would be released from Purgatory on the first Saturday after their death. Curiously, all the souls are pictured as women, with the possible exception of the one on left, where the coloration above the lip could represent a moustache.
In paintings of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel it is conventional that she be attended either by angels, as here, or by historical figures related to her cult.
Read more about images of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.
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Photographed at the cathedral by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.