Lot Essay
Juan Carlos de Medina lived and worked in Mexico City during the mid-18th century. According to an official document from 1753, he was married to doña Petra and had four children--Ana (22), José (12), María (8) and Micaela (5). Also living with the family was a niece, María, and an apprentice by the name of Matías Rojas. (M. Toussaint, Pintura colonial en México, Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1982.)
By the mid-18th century when this work was painted, the Virgin of Guadalupe had become ubiquitous throughout Nueva España and Latin America as a miracle-producing image. A powerful symbol of the Christian conquest in the Americas, the present image depicts a sweet-faced, pious young woman surrounded by a golden halo and a cascading abundance of flowers. Flanking her in each corner of the painting are scenes illustrating her miraculous appearance to the native Juan Diego in 1531 on Tepeyac Hill, an important pilgrimage site of pre-Columbian worship and what was to become the site of the Basílica de Guadalupe.
Derived from a Spanish source, images of the Virgin of Guadalupe created in Nueva España were modified from the old-world version to include “ashen-olive skin and straight black hair.” (J. Favrot Peterson, “The Virgin of Guadalupe: Symbol of Conquest or Liberation?” in Art Journal, Vol. 51, No. 4, Latin American Art (Winter 1992), p. 40.) The combination of her darker complexion and European features surely resonated with both the local inhabitants and the conquistadores in the new world, and moreover provided visual proof of the Spanish crown’s divinely-ordained mission in the Americas. Images such as this thus served as a means to simultaneously connect with the Aztec past while at the same time looking forward to a new reality—a new nation, born out of the complex mixing of vastly different races and cultures. While in the 17th and 18th centuries La Guadalupana served as a potent symbol of the new mestizo culture, in the 19th century her image garnered new power as she was heralded as an emblem of Mexico’s fight for independence. Today the image of Virgin of Guadalupe far surpasses her religious significance and has become intrinsically linked to notions of Mexican national identity.
By the mid-18th century when this work was painted, the Virgin of Guadalupe had become ubiquitous throughout Nueva España and Latin America as a miracle-producing image. A powerful symbol of the Christian conquest in the Americas, the present image depicts a sweet-faced, pious young woman surrounded by a golden halo and a cascading abundance of flowers. Flanking her in each corner of the painting are scenes illustrating her miraculous appearance to the native Juan Diego in 1531 on Tepeyac Hill, an important pilgrimage site of pre-Columbian worship and what was to become the site of the Basílica de Guadalupe.
Derived from a Spanish source, images of the Virgin of Guadalupe created in Nueva España were modified from the old-world version to include “ashen-olive skin and straight black hair.” (J. Favrot Peterson, “The Virgin of Guadalupe: Symbol of Conquest or Liberation?” in Art Journal, Vol. 51, No. 4, Latin American Art (Winter 1992), p. 40.) The combination of her darker complexion and European features surely resonated with both the local inhabitants and the conquistadores in the new world, and moreover provided visual proof of the Spanish crown’s divinely-ordained mission in the Americas. Images such as this thus served as a means to simultaneously connect with the Aztec past while at the same time looking forward to a new reality—a new nation, born out of the complex mixing of vastly different races and cultures. While in the 17th and 18th centuries La Guadalupana served as a potent symbol of the new mestizo culture, in the 19th century her image garnered new power as she was heralded as an emblem of Mexico’s fight for independence. Today the image of Virgin of Guadalupe far surpasses her religious significance and has become intrinsically linked to notions of Mexican national identity.