The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Our Lady of Good Counsel

c. 1680

Bartolomé Pérez

(Spanish, 1634–1693)
Spain, 17th century
oil on copper
Framed: 50 x 40 cm (19 11/16 x 15 3/4 in.); Unframed: 37 x 26 cm (14 9/16 x 10 1/4 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2012.5
Location: Not on view

Description

This painting loosely and inventively depicts an actual chapel in the former Jesuit Imperial College in Madrid, which housed a Madonna and Child in gilded and painted wood, a focus of popular devotion. Pérez made temporary decorations for the Spanish court, none of which survive, but the fanciful architecture, curiously inverted obelisks, fruits and flowers, and pastel colors all stem from this side of his work. By representing a polychrome sculpture in two dimensions, Pérez further blurred boundaries between painting and sculpture. This intersection of the spiritual and the real worlds was important in Spanish art of the 1600s.
  • - ca. 1996 Private collection (South of France), sold to Galeries Terrades.
    1996-2012 Galeries Terrades (Paris, France), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art.
  • Escribano, Raul Gomez. "Herrera Barnuego en Atocha: entre los Uffizi, la Academia y la Biblioteca Nacional." Goya 373 (October-December 2024): 290-309. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 307, fig. 14
    Palencia Cerezo, J. Ma. Dibujos Barrocos Madrileños del Museo de Bellas Artes de Córdoba. [Córdoba] : Consejería de Turismo, Cultura y Deporte, 2022. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 92, fig. 21.1 and 21.2
  • {{cite web|title=Our Lady of Good Counsel|url=false|author=Bartolomé Pérez|year=c. 1680|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2012.5