José Joaquín Magón, pintor poblano: San José de La Luz.

In the second half of the sixteenth century the Mexican Provincial Council declared Saint Joseph the patron of New Spain. The reevaluation of his figure in Europe coincided with the conquest of the new continent, so he began to be represented as a man of 30 years, a young saint who sponsored the nascent territory of the viceroyalty.
   The popular devotion to San José in New Spain grew during the second half of the18th century and generated some new images such as the invocation of San José de la Luz using the iconography of the Virgin Mary, a representation that was forbidden by the Holy Office in the territory of New Spain; This association of Joseph with Marian iconography was censored throughout New Spain by the Holy Inquisition, because of an ecclesiastical law that prevented the saints from sharing invocations.

painting of the Virgin of Light by José Joaquín Magón (Museo Soumaya, Mexico City) 

However, popular fervor prevailed over ecclesiastical dispositions. There was such a strong devotion to San José in the eighteenth century that the iconographic attributes given to the Virgin of Light were granted to the saint in some portrayals.

Thus, this oil on canvas of Saint Joseph of the Light by José Joaquín Magón shows the saint in an almost identical posture, holding his floral rod and carrying the baby Jesus. 

On one side an angel proffers a baskets of flaming hearts and like the Virgin in the earlier portrait, Joseph saves a soul from the jaws of Hell - a rare example of this representation.  Another local example is this tiled version from the church of La Luz in the city of Puebla:

Text © 2018 Richard D. Perry
color images by the author and from online sources