The Virgin of Quito is a popular cult image venerated throughout the northern Andes; its composition is derived from the biblical description of the "Woman of the Apocalypse." As described by Saint John, the woman was clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. After battling a dragon (Satan, with the apple of original sin in its mouth, missing from this object), she is given wings to escape. This small devotional image is one of a multitude to replicate the famed sculpture in the Church of San Francisco in Quito, attributed to the mestizo sculptor Legarda.

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