in it. Tradition has it that the miraculous restoration of the painting occurred on Friday, 26 December 1586: scratches and holes in the cotton were gradually sealed, with light and colour overlaying them. The image stood out again, having recovered its vivacity and brightness. The Virgin of the Rosary in the center of the painting is approximately three feet high. She looks towards her left as if to call attention to the nearly naked Christ Child in her arms. She has a calm countenance with a delicate smile. Both her face and the Child's are pale. The Child has a small, brightly coloured bird tied to his thumb, and a rosary hangs from his left hand. A white veil covers her hair, and her rose-tinted robe is covered by a sky-blue cape. The Virgin stands on a crescent moon, suggesting she is the Woman of the Apocalypse. With the little finger of her left hand, she holds a rosary which hangs in front of her, and in her right hand is a scepter. On her right stands the figure of Saint Anthony of Padua, in the Franciscan habit and holding his usual a book with a vision of the Child Jesus atop, and on her left is the Apostle Saint Andrew, carrying his X-shaped cross. These were the patron saints respectively of Antonio de Santana, the Spanish colonist who had commissioned the painting, and the Dominican friar, Andrés Jadaque, who had arranged for De Narváez to paint it. The figures appear blurred up close, but seem clearer when viewed from a distance. The painting has markedly deteriorated through various causes which were assessed by Cecilia Álvarez White during a technical examination of the painting in 1986. These include the lack of any prepared ground to size the cotton support, the method of painting, and the nature of the pigments used which tend to degrade after exposure to light and humidity. Álvarez White concluded that the single greatest cause of pictorial degradation occurred over the 50 years preceding her examination, when the painting was exposed to more or less continuous, intense electric light. In addition, for three hundred years the image of Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá was exposed to the faithful without any protection, permitting thousands to touch the flimsy cloth. Since 1897, a thick glass cover has protected the painting from inclement weather and the excessive touch