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Lot Essay
Revered throughout the region, the Virgin of Guadalupe is one of the most sacred images in Latin America, and today she is recognized by people across the globe. Derived from Spanish sources, the Virgin of Guadalupe quickly became a powerful image of the crown’s mission in the new world. In 1531, a decade after Hernán Cortés took control of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (what is modern-day Mexico City) founding the Viceroyalty of New Spain, La Guadalupana performed her first miracle. According to legend, the Virgin Mary appeared to the native Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill. Speaking to him in his natal tongue of Náhuatl, the Virgin instructed Juan Diego to go to the bishop and tell him of her miraculous appearance and of her desire for a shrine to be built in her honor on the hill. The bishop however did not believe Juan Diego and so the Virgin appeared to him twice more, imploring him to repeat her request. Again in disbelief, the bishop rejected the appeal, asking for proof of these supposed apparitions. Upon her next appearance to Juan Diego, the Virgin instructed him to gather the flowers that were unseasonably in bloom from Tepeyac Hill. Using his tilma or cloak as a sack, Juan Diego collected the flowers and brought them to the bishop; upon opening his cloak, the flowers poured out, leaving the Virgin’s image miraculously imprinted on the cloth—irrefutable proof of Juan Diego’s visions.
The present work depicts the Virgin Mary, framed by scenes recounting her many miraculous appearances to Juan Diego. A sweet-faced, pious young woman, surrounded by golden rays of the heavens and an abundance of flowers, the Virgin here appears like a tender mother figure, not terribly unlike the Aztec goddess of fertility and the earth, Tonantzin. Indeed, Tepayac Hill, what became the site of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, was an important Aztec place of worship for this “sacred mother.” The syncretism of the legend of La Guadalupana, which linked New Spain’s colonial present to the indigenous past, helped to legitimize the Spanish crown’s so-called “divinely-ordained” mission in the Americas. Images of the Virgin were venerated and promoted throughout the region, providing a firm foundation upon which the church and crown were able to expand their reach. But La Guadalupana was also fiercely embraced as source of pride by the new mestizo culture in the Americas, born out of the complex mixing of vastly different peoples. Later, in the 19th century her image garnered new power as she was heralded as an emblem of Mexico’s fight for independence from Spain. Today her image far surpasses her religious significance and has become intrinsically linked to notions of Mexican national identity.
The present work depicts the Virgin Mary, framed by scenes recounting her many miraculous appearances to Juan Diego. A sweet-faced, pious young woman, surrounded by golden rays of the heavens and an abundance of flowers, the Virgin here appears like a tender mother figure, not terribly unlike the Aztec goddess of fertility and the earth, Tonantzin. Indeed, Tepayac Hill, what became the site of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, was an important Aztec place of worship for this “sacred mother.” The syncretism of the legend of La Guadalupana, which linked New Spain’s colonial present to the indigenous past, helped to legitimize the Spanish crown’s so-called “divinely-ordained” mission in the Americas. Images of the Virgin were venerated and promoted throughout the region, providing a firm foundation upon which the church and crown were able to expand their reach. But La Guadalupana was also fiercely embraced as source of pride by the new mestizo culture in the Americas, born out of the complex mixing of vastly different peoples. Later, in the 19th century her image garnered new power as she was heralded as an emblem of Mexico’s fight for independence from Spain. Today her image far surpasses her religious significance and has become intrinsically linked to notions of Mexican national identity.