Pre-Columbian Ecuador afforded great status to matriarchs of communities and female goddesses associated with the earth's fecundity. These ancient paragons were supplanted in viceregal Quito by the New Testament "Woman, clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet". Alcocer's Apocalyptic Virgin is depicted in a posture that suggests ascent. Her image evokes a Marian title drawn from the Song of Songs (2-7), the "staircase to heaven". By showing a globe with Eden, the "enclosed garden", Alcocer highlighted the Virgin's role as a "Second Eve" of a "New Eden". Adam's Paradise is nearly identical to the background landscape. This "tromple l'oeil", which derives from Northern Renaissance imagery, recalls another Solomonic title, a "Flawless Mirror". The golden arrow held by Alcocer's "La Purísima" is emblematic of the dawn's rays and Christ, the "rising sun". An Apocalyptic Virgin of Quito" by Alcocer in the Denver Art Museum also contains an Edenic globe. Alcocer's interest in nature may have resulted in an introduction to the German explorer Baron Friedrich von Humboldt (1769-1859), whose portrait he painted in 1801. Alcocer's three sons, who trained as artists, joined a 1787-1816 expedition in Santa Fé (Bogotá) organized by Viceroy José Celestino Mutis, Spanish botanist and astronomer.

Dr. Barbara von Barghahn
Washington, D.C., 1992