Saint Justus and Saint Pastor

José Juárez painted this work for the Casa Profesa (the headquarters of the Jesuit order in México), and the subject is a fitting one for the aforesaid institution, since the story of these children martyred for the faith was one to be emulated by its students. The triumphant Justus and Pastor are shown in the foreground carrying the palm fronds of martyrdom and crowned by haloes; it appears that the little boys have just left their schoolbooks on the ground in order to be crowned by the magnificent angels who hover in the air above them. At the two sides of the end wall, there are two big windows which serve as frameworks for the simultaneous temporal and spatial references that the artist so enjoyed. Through the said windows we can see sketchy scenes alluding to the martyrdom suffered by these eight- and twelve-year-old children in Alcalá de Henares. During the persecution of Christians unleashed by Diocletian in 304 A.C., Justus and Pastor voluntarily appeared before the Governor of the then province of Hispania to bear public witness to their faith. At first, the latter tried to make them desist by whipping them, but, seeing that this had no effect, decided to behead them. The upper part of the painting is filled by a burst of glory the center of which is occupied by a lamb, alluding to the sacrifice of Christ, which is guarded over by two angelic figures, one moving and the other at rest, both of them very well executed. Various engravings used by the artist as a basis for this composition have been found. Without a doubt, the masterful handling of line, color, light and contrast indicates that this was one of the paintings done in the neo- Hispanic artist’s mature years. Most critics concur in stating that this is a crowning piece of the oeuvre of José Juárez. This work passed to the MUNAL from the San Diego Viceregal Painting Gallery in the year 2000.