Agustín del Pino, Saint Ignatius Loyola, about 1700. Oil paint and shell inlay on wood panel (enconchado painting); 43½ × 33⅛ in. Gift of the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer, 2013.302.

frame height: 43.5 in, 110.4900 cm; frame width: 33.125 in, 84.1375 cm

Signed "Augustin del Pino" at lower left.

Mayer Center, Latin American Art

Latin American Art

During the colonial period in Mexico, a unique art form known as enconchado was invented and may be related to both pre-conquest shell mosaic and Asian shell inlay traditions. Enconchado panels and objects were inset with pieces of mother-of-pearl and then painted with oil paints thinned to a translucence, to allow the shimmer of the pearl to shine through the paint. Various workshops in Mexico City and other areas produced these stunning and unusual works of art.

This outstanding and unusually large example is signed in the lower left by Agustín del Pino and is a pair with another enconchado painting of Saint Francis Xavier in the Museo de America in Madrid, Spain. Signed enconchados are exceptionally rare with only around a half dozen in existence.

-- Donna Pierce, 2015

Private collection, Miami, FL; Collection of Johanna Van Nest, Alamo, CA, by February 1996; Purchased by Frederick R. [1928-2007] and Jan Mayer, Denver, CO, February 15, 1996; Gifted to the Denver Art Museum, 2013 [1] [1] On loan to the Denver Art Museum since 1999

• "Painting a New World: Mexican Art and Life 1521 - 1821," Denver Art Museum, April 3 - July 25, 2004
• Exhibited 2005, "Patronato, Painting from Baroque Mexico: Selected Works from the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer," Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
• "Collecting a New World: Spanish Colonial Art from the Jan and Frederick R. Mayer Collection," Apr 2-May 14, 2005, Lamont Gallery, Phillips Exeter Academy
• "From Viceregal to Verancular: Painting in Colonial Mexico and New Mexico," Nov 17, 2006-Apr 29, 2007, Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, Santa Fe
• 5 August - October 28, 2007
• "The Arts In Latin America, 1492-1820," August 5, 2007-October 28, 2007, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA
• “ReVision: Art in the Americas” — Denver Art Museum, 10/24/2021 – 7/17/2022
• ReVision: Art in the Americas, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN, 7/1/23 - 9/17/23