Virgin of Guadalupe

Virgin of Guadalupe

1779
Artist
Sebastián Salcedo
Work Locations: Mexico
Active Years: 1779-1783
Locale
Mexico City, Mexico
Country
Mexico
Object
painting
Medium
Oil paint on a copper panel.
Accession Number
1976.56
Credit Line
Funds contributed by Mr. and Mrs. George G. Anderman and an anonymous donor

Sebastian Salcedo, Virgin of Guadalupe, 1779. Oil paint on copper panel; 25½ × 19⅝ in. Museum purchase with funds contributed by Mr. and Mrs. George G. Anderman and an Anonymous Donor, 1976.56.

Inscription
Inscriptions throughout
Department
Mayer Center, Latin American Art
Collection
Latin American Art

No image is as distinctively Mexican as the Virgin of Guadalupe, with her characteristic spiky aura and blue robe with gold stars. After her miraculous appearance to the Indigenous Juan Diego in 1531, the Virgin of Guadalupe became exceptionally popular in Mexico among both creole and Indigenous people. Juan Diego was canonized a saint by Pope John Paul II on July 31, 2002.

Here the Virgin is surrounded by prophets, saints, angels, and seven miniature scenes of her miracles, all identified by inscriptions. At the bottom, Pope Benedict XIV and a Mexica (Aztec) princess (symbolizing Mexico) flank a landscape showing the Virgin’s church north of Mexico City.

Painted on copper in Mexico City in 1779 by Sebastián Salcedo, this image was brought to Santa Fe, New Mexico, around 1800 to hang in the new adobe church of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

-- Donna Pierce, 2015

Known Provenance
Collected around 1805 by Our Lady of Guadalupe church, Santa Fe, NM; gifted 1954 by Msgr. Clarence Schoeppner to Mr. Franz J. Russell, Denver, CO; purchased 11 October 1976 from Franz J. Russell by 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.

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