This article intends to investigate the iconographic origins a representation of the Seraphic Christ, present in the main altarpiece of the Church of the Tertiary Order of Saint Francis Penitent in Rio de Janeiro. Using textual and iconographical sources the present paper will endeavour to locate the origins of the representation and its connections to the Franciscan cult since the appearance of the representation in the Middle Ages to the 18th century, when I believe that the work in question may have been conceived.
Colonial art; iconography; devotional sculpture
