Life of Saint Rose, Saint Rose of Lima

1711

Oviedo y Herrera, Luis Antonio de (author; 1636-1717)

New York, NY, USA, New York Public Library (current location)

This print depicting the Life of Saint Rose was set into a hagiography of the colony’s first female saint, Rose of Lima (1586-1617). A Creole who died at the early age of 29, Rose was famed for her self-mortifications and piety. Written long after Rose’s death, this book and others like it served to spread her fame. Excerpts of the accompanying poem can be found in the Vistas library.

Here, the figure of Rose of Lima sprouts from a flower and holds her identifying symbol, a crown of roses, in her hand. These evoke the crown of thorns worn by Jesus at the Crucifixion. She also displays a tiny image of the Cathedral of Lima, the city where she spent most of her life. It is set upon an anchor, an early Christian symbol of hope, and one of her attributes. This engraving emphasizes Rose’s American origin twice, once in the emblem of Lima and again in the figure of the naked Indian at left. With arrows, quiver, and a feathered headdress, she is an emblematic rendering of the American continent. Opposite America is the writer of the work, Luis Antonio de Oviedo y Herrera, who beholds the saint with awe. At the base of the image, the three crowns refer to the city of Lima (whose formal name is The City of Kings). The pomegranate beneath them is a symbol of the Catholic Church (the one fruit holding many seeds alluding to the Church’s universal embrace of the world’s peoples), chastity (its fruit protected by a tough skin) as well as a reference to Rose’s abstemious diet, which reportedly consisted of orange seeds and pomegranate flowers.

While the book of the life of St. Rose was written by Luis Antonio Oviedo y Herrera, the plate itself seems to have been the creation of two others: one with the last name of Izala, who drew the original and then Clemens Puiche, who engraved it. Their names appear at the bottom. This kind of collaboration, between authors, artists, and engravers was common in Europe, where this book was printed.

This print is an etching and the network of crosshatchings and delicate faded lines is typical. In this method of print-making, the printing plate itself was first coated with wax, the image was then drawn in the soft material, and then the whole plate was treated in an acid bath that would burn the image into the metal. After applying ink to the plate, the printer would then press the plate. By the early 18th century, when this print was made, etching was a well-known technique, used for many images in many books across Europe and Spanish America.

This image was included in a book-length poem, entitled Vida de Santa Rosa de Santa Maria, natural de Lima, y patrona del Peru. Although its author was Peruvian, it was published in Spain in 1711.

Rose of Lima was an important American saint, canonized in 1671, more rapidly than any other American. Her life was the subject of many paintings, and, thanks to Creole partisans, she attracted a devoted following in Spanish America both before and after her death. Across the 17th and 18th centuries, texts written about Saint Rose emphasize her piety and lack of worldliness. Through these texts, she became one of the most important models for female devotional practices.

Reproduced courtesy of the New York Public Library; Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy.
Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820. http://www.fordham.edu/vistas, 2015.

Flores Araoz, José, et al. 1995. Santa Rosa de Lima y su tiempo. Lima: Banco de Crédito del Perú.

Myers, Kathleen Ann. 2003. “‘Redeemer of America’: Rosa de Lima (1586-1617), the Dynamics of Identity and Canonization.” In Colonial Saints: Discovering the Holy in the Americas, 1580-1800. Allan Greer and Jodi Bilinkoff, eds. New York: Routledge.

Oviedo y Herrera, Luis Antonio. 1711. Vida de Sta. Rosa de Santa María, natural de Lima, y patrona del Perú. Madrid: J.G. Infançon.