Nicolás Enríquez, Virgin of Guadalupe. Mexico, about 1740. Oil on copper panel, silver frame; Framed 52¾ × 35¾ × 1⅝ in. Gift of the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer, 2013.303.

sight height: 32 11/16 in, 83.0263 cm; sight width: 24 1/4 in, 61.5950 cm; frame height: 52.75 in, 133.9850 cm; frame width: 35.75 in, 90.8050 cm; frame depth: 1 5/8 in, 4.1275 cm

Signed in LRC.

Mayer Center, Latin American Art

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 creoles and Indigneous peoples. Juan Diego was canonized a saint by Pope John Paul II on July 31, 2002.
     Here the Virgin is surrounded by angels and four miniature scenes of her original miracles. At the bottom, a landscape shows the new church dedicated to her in 1703 at the foot of the hill of Tepeyac north of Mexico City, the site of her original appearance and miracles. Painted on copper in Mexico City around 1740, it is signed by the well-known artist Nicolás Enríquez.
     The painting is surrounded by a spectacular frame most likely made in Popayán, Colombia, a region famous for its excellent repoussé silverwork. The fact that this frame was placed on this painting either originally or during the colonial period documents the well-known, although at times illegal, trade between Mexico and South America.
-- Donna Pierce, 2015

    

Private collection; (Sotheby’s), New York, NY, sale 6779, lot 2, November 21, 1995 ; Purchased by Frederick R. [1928-2007] and Jan Mayer, Denver, CO, November 21, 1995; Gifted to the Denver Art Museum, 2013 [1] [1] On loan to the Denver Art Museum since 1996

• "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
• “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