Seven crosses by María Josefa Sánchez and one by Cecco del Caravaggio for North American museums

14/7/26 - Acquisitions - Toronto, The Art Gallery of Ontario et Dallas, Meadows Museum - Almost nothing is known about María Josefa Sánchez, except that she was active in Castile between 1639 and 1652 and that she painted cell crosses: these devotional objects, aids to prayer and meditation, were widespread in Spanish and Latin American convents in the 17th and 18th centuries, in keeping with the spirituality of the Counter-Reformation, following various works written in the second half of the 16th century, Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises in 1548, Louis of Granada’s Treatise on Prayer and Meditation in 1554, revised in 1566, and Teresa of Ávila’s The Way of Perfection in 1566.