OUR LADY OF PENHA

ICONOGRAPHIC VARIATIONS AND OVERLAPPING INVOCATIONS IN THE BRAZILIAN BAROQUE

Abstract

São Paulo has one of the most remarkable sculptural examples of the 17th century Virgin of
Penha. From this sculpture, we established a comparative iconographic- iconological study with
other works of statuary of this invocation, particularly the images of Penha of Votorantim and
Arujá, examples of São Paulo devotional imaginary confectioned in terracotta, respectively in
the 17th and 19th centuries. The approximation of these images to Marian sculptures from other
titles allows us to verify a kind of overlapping of invocations of Mary, that is, a recurrence or
absence of singular iconographic elements – whether gestures, attributes, symbols or                                                                         polychromies – that subtly cease to be “exclusive” of certain titles of Our Lady and, endowed
with a persuasive and intentional aesthetic discourse, permeate the most varied images of the
Virgin and Child.