Holy Family (nun's badge)

Holy Family (nun's badge)

early 1600s
Artist
Luis Juárez, Mexican, ca. 1585 - 1639
Work Locations: Mexico
Country
Mexico
Object
Nun's Badge
Medium
Oil paint on copper with a tortoise shell frame
Accession Number
2013.363
Credit Line
Gift of the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer

Unknown artist, Holy Family (Nun’s Badge), early 1600s. Oil paint on copper with a tortoise shell frame; 4⅝ in. dia. Gift of the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer, 2013.363.

Dimensions
diameter: 4 2/3 in, 11.8533 cm
Department
Mayer Center, Latin American Art
Collection
Latin American Art

Nun’s badges (escudos) are unique to Mexico. Invented there in the 1600s, they were worn at the throat by Conceptionist and Hieronymite nuns over the habits of their respective orders. Depicting the Virgin and saints significant to the order and/or the individual nun, they were usually painted on round or oval sheets of copper and framed in tortoiseshell or wood. Many of the most famous artists in Mexico painted nun’s badges, and some are signed. Although unsigned, this piece is attributed to the workshop or a follower of the important early 17th-century artist Luis Juárez, founder of a dynasty of artists in Mexico.

This small image shows the crowned Virgin Mary in a purple robe and blue mantle. Standing in her lap is the Christ child, with a gossamer cloth around his hips and a lily in his hand. At right is St. Joseph, the earthly father of Christ, who holds the flowering staff that is his traditional attribute.

– Donna Pierce, 2015; revised by Kathryn Santner, Frederick and Jan Mayer Fellow of Spanish Colonial Art, 2023

Known Provenance
Gifted 25 November 2103 by the Frederick and Jan Mayer Collection of Denver, CO, to the Denver Art Museum. Provenance research is on-going at the Denver Art Museum. Please e-mail provenance@denverartmuseum.org, if you have questions, or if you have additional information to share with us.
Exhibition History
  • "Heaven and Earth: The Jan and Frederick Mayer Collection of Spanish Colonial Art from the Denver Art Museum, Jun 16-Oct 8, 2006, Museo de las Americas, Denver
  • "From Viceregal to Verancular: Painting in Colonial Mexico and New Mexico," Nov 17, 2006-Apr 29, 2007, Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, Santa Fe