Santa Rita de Cascia with Skull, 19th C. Spanish Colonial Retablo on Tin antique tramp art box Quite an excellent vignette

Quite an excellent vignette

Just a nice thing to keep on the desk (or hang on a nail near it)

15/16" thick

I find it super poignant

I purchased this painting by Lois Gross Smiley (1925-2018) out of the studio of her estate in Wellesley

Santa Rita de Cascia with Skull, 19th C. Spanish Colonial Retablo on Tin antique tramp art box Quite an excellent vignetteDepicted in this 19th c. retablo on tin is Santa Rita de Cascia born Margherita Ferri Lotti Mancini (13811457) a window turned Augustinian nun canonized as the patroness of impossible causes and also known in many Catholic countries as patroness of abused wives and heartbroken women. (Rita apparently endured endured the physical and psychological abuse and infidelities of her nobleman husband Paolo Mancini for many years.) I love her for those