Our Lady of Guadalupe Novohispanic Colonial School, Mexico, 17th century

Our Lady of Guadalupe Novohispanic Colonial School, Mexico, 17th century
Oil on canvas, with inscription: "Tocada a la Original de México". The Virgin represented in the center of the composition surrounded by rays of light, on a crescent moon, is dressed in a pink tunic and a blue mantle, which covers her head, decorated with stars. She leans on the crescent moon, supported by an angel with blue, yellow and red wings. Her head slightly tilted to the right is in a prayerful attitude. It is surrounded by the four apparitions on the Tepeyac hill -Mexico City- to the Indian Juan Diego, who is accompanied by two angels, attends the divine apparition that asks him to go to Bishop Zumárraga, tell him what he has seen and tell him that build a temple on that very spot. The indifference of the prelate and his desire to receive evidence more palpable than the mere word of the Indian motivates a third appearance, represented in the lower left corner, with the consequent mandate to pick up some roses that, hidden in his tilma or blanket, he had to show to Zumárraga, which gives rise to the fourth and last appearance in the presence of the bishop and his companions, who can see how, instead of the flowers, it is the sacred image itself that appears printed on Juan Diego's blanket. These scenes follow the engravings that Matías de Arteaga made in 1685 to recount the prodigy, as part of that year's edition of the book Happiness of Mexico, by Luis Becerra Tanco. The authorship of the painting of the virgin is attributed to the indigenous artist Marcos Cipac de Aquino, who is presumed, He made the painting commissioned by the second archbishop of Mexico, Alonso de Montúfar. The “Guadalupana” belongs to a German Flemish iconographic model called mulier amicta sole (the woman surrounded by the sun) that dates back to the Middle Ages. The conceptual background of this model is Saint John's description of the heavenly woman in the New Testament Apocalypse: "a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head" . Among the known works in which there is a greater resemblance to the painting of the Virgin, The Virgin in Glory stands out, from 1490, a German Flemish print, which coincides in its main lines with the Guadalupe and which could have been a source of inspiration. for Mark. The variations that exist between both images were probably due to the adaptation required by the emitters and receivers of the image. The representation of the Virgin of Guadalupe shares common features with many Marian images made after 1530. This is because the model was kept current through the reprinting of old plates, as well as through the creation of new works, including the of the Virgin as the Immaculate Conception, which was normalized in the 17th century. The latter has motivated many Novohispanic clerics of the 17th and 18th centuries to consider the Virgin of Guadalupe as an Immaculate Conception. Canvas measures: 104.5 x 83.5 cm The representation of the Virgin of Guadalupe shares common features with many Marian images made after 1530. This is because the model was kept current through the reprinting of old plates, as well as through the creation of new works, including the of the Virgin as the Immaculate Conception, which was normalized in the 17th century. The latter has motivated many Novohispanic clerics of the 17th and 18th centuries to consider the Virgin of Guadalupe as an Immaculate Conception. Canvas measures: 104.5 x 83.5 cm The representation of the Virgin of Guadalupe shares common features with many Marian images made after 1530. This is because the model was kept current through the reprinting of old plates, as well as through the creation of new works, including the of the Virgin as the Immaculate Conception, which was normalized in the 17th century. The latter has motivated many Novohispanic clerics of the 17th and 18th centuries to consider the Virgin of Guadalupe as an Immaculate Conception. Canvas measures: 104.5 x 83.5 cm The latter has motivated many Novohispanic clerics of the 17th and 18th centuries to consider the Virgin of Guadalupe as an Immaculate Conception. Canvas measures: 104.5 x 83.5 cm The latter has motivated many Novohispanic clerics of the 17th and 18th centuries to consider the Virgin of Guadalupe as an Immaculate Conception. Canvas measures: 104.5 x 83.5 cm