DISCOVERY

Artist: Unknown

Title: Martyrdom of Five Cristeros, October 8, 1927

Translated  Inscription:

Execution of Cristeros by federal soldiers on the outskirts

of San Gabriel, Jalisco, October 8, 1927.

On the same site, the soldiers were ambushed,

suffering the same fate.  

Date: made circa 1927 commemorating the recent event  

Medium: Oil on Tin

Dimensions: 7.5 x 10.5 in.

Provenance:

Art Market, Mexico (of unknown significance)

Art Market, New Mexico (sold as recent work)

Fred R. Kline Gallery, Santa Fe (discovery, research, and authentication by Fred R. Kline)

Knights of Columbus Museum, New Haven, CT

Sold to Knights of Columbus Museum

Historical Note:

Pope John Paul II, on May 21, 2000, canonized 27 Mexican saints, most of whom were martyred in the Cristero Rebellion of the 1920's, a three-year civil war that pitted the federal army against priests and peasants and resulted in 70,000 deaths.

Commemorating the canonization of the new saints and exhibited for the first time at Fred R. Kline Gallery in June 2000, this extremely rare and historically important ex-voto, implying divine justice carried out, may be the unique visual document of the martyrdom of Cristeros during this hushed period of Mexican history. One of the new saints may have been among the group of five being executed in this resounding depiction, which in all probability was created by an eye witness.