Chacon's Madonna & Child with Bird to be Commemorated on New Christmas Stamp

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is being issued by the U.S. Postal Service:

  WHAT:        The U.S. Postal Service holds first-day-of-issue stamp
               dedication for the 2006 Madonna and Child with Bird
               commemorative stamp at the Denver Art Museum.

  WHO:         Presidentially-Appointed Governor of the United States Postal
               Service Katherine Tobin

               Frederick and Jan Mayer Director of Denver Art Museum Lewis
               Sharp

               Frederick and Jan Mayer Curator of Spanish Colonial Art,
               Denver Art Museum Dr. Donna Pierce

  WHEN:        10:30 a.m. (MT)
               Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2006
               The event is free and open to the public.

  WHERE:       Denver Art Museum
               North Building
               100 West 14th Avenue Parkway
               Denver, CO  80204-2618

  BACKGROUND:  The 2006 Christmas stamp features an oil-on-canvas painting
               entitled Madonna and Child with Bird.  Dating to around 1765,
               the painting is attributed to Ignacio Chacon -- an artist
               active from about 1745 to 1775 in Cuzco, Peru.  This painting
               is now part of the Engracia and Frank Barrows Freyer
               Collection of Peruvian colonial art at the Denver Art Museum.