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Lot Essay
Portraiture of important administrative figures such as viceroys, governors and aristocrats flourished throughout the Spanish colonies. Indeed, an early series of vice-regal portraits in the palaces in cities such as Mexico and Lima provided a constant visual reminder of the authority of the sitters and the Spanish crown which they served. A well-known portrait from the era by Mexican painter Miguel Cabrera of Don Juan Xavier Joachín Gutiérrez Altamirano Velasco, Count of Santiago de Calimaya (circa 1752), is part of the collection of the Brooklyn Museum.1
By the eighteenth century, portraiture incerasingly represented members of the upper classes of the New World’s creole society such as military leaders, landed gentry or hacendados, founders of universities, archbishops, aristocratic ladies and nuns. Such is the present portrait of Sr. Regidor Don Manuel Joseph Pérez Valiente de Moctezuma by master painter and teacher Juan Manuel de Ávila who lived and worked in the city of Mexico in the mid eighteenth century.2 The symbols of lineage, power and prestige are all visually detailed throughout the splendid composition. The resplendent figure dressed in the finest fashion of the day and wearing a powdered wig, is a descendant of the tlatoani or ruler of Tenochtitlan, Moctezuma II. The sitter’s various titles and offices such as “regidor” and “inspector de milicias” in Mexico and Río de la Plata, two important colonial administrative centers, are cited in the descriptive text prominently placed on the upper right of the composition where the ubiquitous draping of a red curtain framing the portrait is noted. On the upper left, the painter has included Don Manuel’s coat of arms with the inscription or motto: “A corazón valiente --nada imposible” (For a brave heart nothing is impossible), further denoting his almost heroic character or nature; thus, the sober and formal pose of the sitter. With his right hand, he grasps a walking stick made from a local wood and topped with an elaborate silver handle as indicator of the dignity of his office. Although the elegant accessory had become fashionably popular by the seventeenth century, it dates to biblical times. His left hand-in- waistcoat, a gesture used in portraiture at the time, represents his style of leadership as calm but firm.3 A posthumous portrait (as the inscription indicates) of a young man and other Moctezuma descendant, Don Francisco de Orense y Moctezuma, Conde de Villalobos (circa 1761) is part of the collection of the Denver Art Museum.4
Portraiture in the Spanish colonies expressed a unique society made up of diverse peoples, the criollos, mestizos and the indigenous classes. It demonstrated affinities for the so-called European Motherland or Madre Patria, and also its local culture. This portrait of a member of the ruling class, yet a mestizo of Aztec and Spanish lineage, is a remarkable testament of a very complex world.
Margarita J. Aguilar, Doctoral Candidate, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
By the eighteenth century, portraiture incerasingly represented members of the upper classes of the New World’s creole society such as military leaders, landed gentry or hacendados, founders of universities, archbishops, aristocratic ladies and nuns. Such is the present portrait of Sr. Regidor Don Manuel Joseph Pérez Valiente de Moctezuma by master painter and teacher Juan Manuel de Ávila who lived and worked in the city of Mexico in the mid eighteenth century.2 The symbols of lineage, power and prestige are all visually detailed throughout the splendid composition. The resplendent figure dressed in the finest fashion of the day and wearing a powdered wig, is a descendant of the tlatoani or ruler of Tenochtitlan, Moctezuma II. The sitter’s various titles and offices such as “regidor” and “inspector de milicias” in Mexico and Río de la Plata, two important colonial administrative centers, are cited in the descriptive text prominently placed on the upper right of the composition where the ubiquitous draping of a red curtain framing the portrait is noted. On the upper left, the painter has included Don Manuel’s coat of arms with the inscription or motto: “A corazón valiente --nada imposible” (For a brave heart nothing is impossible), further denoting his almost heroic character or nature; thus, the sober and formal pose of the sitter. With his right hand, he grasps a walking stick made from a local wood and topped with an elaborate silver handle as indicator of the dignity of his office. Although the elegant accessory had become fashionably popular by the seventeenth century, it dates to biblical times. His left hand-in- waistcoat, a gesture used in portraiture at the time, represents his style of leadership as calm but firm.3 A posthumous portrait (as the inscription indicates) of a young man and other Moctezuma descendant, Don Francisco de Orense y Moctezuma, Conde de Villalobos (circa 1761) is part of the collection of the Denver Art Museum.4
Portraiture in the Spanish colonies expressed a unique society made up of diverse peoples, the criollos, mestizos and the indigenous classes. It demonstrated affinities for the so-called European Motherland or Madre Patria, and also its local culture. This portrait of a member of the ruling class, yet a mestizo of Aztec and Spanish lineage, is a remarkable testament of a very complex world.
Margarita J. Aguilar, Doctoral Candidate, The Graduate Center, City University of New York