Mexican school of the 17th century Ex-voto to the miraculous Virgin of Ocotlan Paper marouflé on canvas The canvas is titled at the bottom: "R[etra]to de la Milagr[osi]ssima Virg[e]n Ocotlan de Tlaxcala. N.SS.P. Gregorio XV concedio cien a[n]o de indulg[enci]a a los q[uien] digeren: Bendita sea la purissima e immacula imagen de la Beatissima Virgen Maria/ tocada a su orig..." 38 x 28 cm Bears a number on the reverse of the frame "L-75761-P" (Damage and missing) The four scenes illustrate the story of the Virgin of Ocotlan. During an epidemic in 1541, the Virgin appeared to Juan Diego Bernardino, a monk of indigenous origin at the monastery of Ocotlan, a village in the state of Tlaxcala, not far from Mexico City. When he went to fetch water for the sick, she appeared to him and led him to a miraculous water that everyone had to drink to be preserved from illness. Before leaving him, she showed him a pine tree under which he would find a statue of her image that he was to deposit in the local sanctuary. Juan Diego Bernardino went there with his brothers who saw the tree on fire but the statue was not consumed. They took it to the designated sanctuary and placed it on the high altar where it is still the object of pilgrimages.