Our Lady of Good Counsel

The Virgin and Child, modeled after a venerated wooden sculpture, occupy the center as objects of veneration. Surrounding elements—upside-down obelisks, abundant fruit, and floral motifs—suggest abundance and divine favor, while also evoking the transient nature of earthly beauty. The composition merges the physical space of worship with symbolic layers, reinforcing the spiritual significance of the image without literal narrative.

Pérez rendered a three-dimensional polychrome statue in flat, luminous paint, using soft pastel hues to create an ethereal glow. The architecture is stylized, with impossible structural elements like inverted obelisks, suggesting a dreamlike sacred space. His handling of texture and light mimics the sheen of gilded wood, deliberately confusing the boundary between painted surface and sculpted object.

Pérez, known for designing temporary court decorations that no longer survive, applied his theatrical sensibility to this painting. The subject references a specific chapel in the Jesuit Imperial College in Madrid, where the original wooden Madonna was a focus of popular devotion. This work likely served as a devotional aid or commemorative piece, preserving the memory of a sacred image through paint.

In 17th-century Spain, religious art often blurred the line between the material and the divine, especially in contexts of Counter-Reformation piety. Pérez’s fusion of real and imagined elements reflects a broader cultural tendency to elevate sacred objects through visual illusion. His work aligns with contemporaries who used architecture and ornament to deepen spiritual experience.

Though Pérez’s court decorations are lost, this painting endures as evidence of his skill in translating ephemeral spectacle into lasting image. His approach influenced how sacred sculpture was visually mediated in painting, contributing to a Spanish tradition that valued the interplay between real objects and their painted representations in devotional practice.