Virgin of Guadalupe
- Sebastián Salcedo
- Work Locations: Mexico
- Active Years: 1779-1783
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.
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
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