Oh heavens above! In a circular painting by 18th-century Mexican artist Antonio de Torres, a glorious Virgin hovers in heaven among a swirl of pastel clouds. As the Virgin looks up to God, she emanates divine light. A 12-starred halo crowns her head as she stands on a crescent moon, with a jolly sun peeking out from behind her; each of these motifs refers to Revelations 12:1 in the Bible. Saints surround her, with some gazing adoringly up at her, and others gazing out of the painting to encourage our faith.
De Torres’s jubilant painting is packed full of devout meaning, exquisite details, and a big surprise: It’s only seven inches in diameter and is a Mexican nun’s badge that Conceptionist and Hieronymite nuns pinned to their habits, at their throats. (Friars pinned similar badges to their capes.)
Nuns’ and friars’ badges are a unique Mexican tradition that began in the 17th century. Yet the badges’ paintings connect to age-old European traditions. De Torres’s circular painting harks back to the popular Florentine Renaissance tradition of tondo (circular) painting, which was itself inspired by ancient medals. An artist needed to be a skilled draftsman to conquer the circular composition.
Mexico’s eminent artists created badges that echoed the grandeur of their paintings. On each badge, the artist painted a central biblical scene, with popular choices being the Annunciation (where the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would have a son, Jesus) or the Immaculate Conception (the Catholic belief that Jesus’s mother was born without sin). The artists then filled the edges with flowers, cherubs, angels, and saints according to the badge owner’s preference and religious order. For instance, Mexican painter José de Páez created a delightful rectangular friar’s badge of the Nativity, with God watching over the Holy Family.
These badges were one of the new arts born from the Spanish colonization of the New World, and both examples above are in The “Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800” exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). The exhibition explores this complex yet fascinating period of art history through over 90 paintings, sculptures, textiles, and decorative arts from LACMA’s collection.
Art of the New Spanish America
In the late 15th century, Spain began colonizing the New World; subsequently, the art of the Americas altered. Local artists, while staying true to their traditions, were influenced by European, Asian, and African imports and styles, thus creating new styles and types of art.The development of Catholic art in the Americas is one fascinating aspect of the exhibition. When the Spanish came to the New World, religious paintings and sculptures were important in converting the indigenous population to Catholicism. Wherever possible, Spanish artists passed on their Western techniques to local artists, resulting in Latin American devotional works acquiring a Spanish style.
Other European styles were also passed on. For instance, in the 1530s, after the Spanish colonized Cuzco, high in the Andean mountains of Peru, European artists shared their skills with locals. Indigenous and European artists working in the town from the 16th to the 18th century became known as the Cuzco School, which spread across the Andes and to Bolivia and Ecuador.
Often in early Spanish American paintings, there’s a naiveté to the artists’ techniques, but the divine message conveyed in those paintings is just as potent as any of the more technically accomplished High Renaissance religious works. It’s an important reminder that the artist’s intent behind a painting is powerful.
A small icon titled “The Holy Family” by Mexican artist Nicolás Rodríguez Juárez illustrates this point well. Juárez depicted Mary and the Christ child gazing directly at us, while Joseph gazes at Christ who raises his hand and blesses us. All three figures emanate divine light, and the call to connect to our faith shines so bright. We forget that these figures aren’t quite anatomically correct, with their wide eyes, chubby cheeks, and plump hands.
Hispanic artists took their inspiration from European compositions while staying true to their own artistic traditions. For instance, one member of Mexico’s newly established (1722) academy of painters, the artist Nicolás Enríquez, looked to the Jesuit book of engravings titled “Evangelicae Historiae Imagines“ (”Images of Evangelical History“) by Jerónimo Nadal for inspiration when he painted ”The Adoration of the Kings With Viceroy Pedro de Castro y Figueroa, Duke of La Conquista." In the same painting, Enríquez also referenced a work in Mexico City’s cathedral by Mexican painter Juan Rodríguez Juárez.
A prime example of Spanish style converging with local sensibilities is de Torres’s painting “Sacred Conversation With the Immaculate Conception and the Divine Shepherd.” In the painting, a Conceptionist nun converses with the Spanish mystic Saint John of the Cross. She wears a sacred badge on her habit, and bows as she passes her divinely awakened heart to the saint.
On the left side of the painting, the Virgin stands atop a white lily, a symbol of purity. Christ appears as the good shepherd standing on the middle of the bridge, in the center of the painting. According to the LACMA website, the bridge links all four figures in the painting and symbolizes that the nun’s sacred communion with the saint could take place due only to the divine intervention of the Virgin and Christ.
De Torres painted the bridge from a bird’s-eye perspective, a view popular in Flemish paintings by the likes of Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
Miracle Paintings
The familiar “Our Lady of Guadalupe” motif surrounded by four vignettes has been reproduced many times. Many of these paintings appear similar but their styles differ. This was due to the artists’ copying the paintings of famed artists. For instance, Mexican artist|Juan Correa made a wax template for painters to copy his works.
In the exhibition, Manuel de Arellano’s and Antonio de Arellano’s 1691 “Virgin of Guadalupe” painting is signed “touched to the original” to acknowledge the master copy. In the painting, four vignettes show how the Virgin appeared to Indian Juan Diego in 1531 asking him to request that the bishop build a church on the hill in her honor. Legend has it that the bishop didn’t believe him. The Virgin appeared to Diego three times with the same request, but the bishop didn’t budge. On her fourth visit, the Virgin told Diego to go to the hill and pick Castille roses and give them to the bishop. Diego gathered the roses in his cloak and then presented them to the shocked bishop; Castille roses don’t grow in the region. When Diego emptied all the roses from his cloak, miraculously the Virgin’s image was imprinted on it. The final vignette in the painting shows the miracle.
Miguel González also depicted the legend in using “enconchado,” a new technique that peaked around 1680 to 1700, whereby mother-of-pearl inlays enhanced a painting. The iridescent nature of mother-of-pearl adds a further touch of transcendence to his “Virgin of Guadalupe” painting.
Devotional Sculptures
In the Hispanic world, sacred sculptures are polychromatic—colorfully painted.Oftentimes, pieces by the same sculptor could appear very different, due to the involvement of different artisans. Patrons often received their commissioned statues unpainted. It was up to them to arrange for a painter to embellish the works and make the pieces as lifelike as possible. For naturalistic appeal, artists often added glass eyes, ivory teeth, and real eyelashes to the sculptures. In some cases, the works were dressed in costumes.
A small, late-18th century, private devotional sculpture of the “Virgin of the Rosary” from Guatemala is on display in the exhibition. The painter of the devotional sculpture, Felipe de Estrada, signed the work, which artists rarely did. He decorated the Virgin’s robes with fine fabric; such works of art were called “estofados.”
Hispanic artists adapted some Spanish decorative techniques, and the sculptures took on a distinctly local flair. For instance, in Spain gold was commonly used as a ground, a base layer on the sculptures to which paint was applied. Artists would then scratch designs through parts of the painted surface to reveal the gold beneath. Some of the gold remained concealed under the paint, which further enhanced the paint pigments. Artists in Quito, Ecuador, used gold and silver grounds for their statues. This practice had existed in Spain, but the Ecuadorian sculptors used it to more dramatic effect, frequently juxtaposing it with gold.
The sacred paintings and sculptures of Spanish America acted as instruments of faith: to inspire devotion. Believers developed intimate relationships with these sublime, functional pieces. Artists repainting pieces to align with popular sensibilities was a common practice in sculpture and in painting. Hispanic artists infused each of their works with intense emotions, gestures, and vitality—all explicitly designed to teach Scripture and to inspire contemplation and devotion to God.
The “Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800” exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is curated by the museum’s head of Latin American art, Ilona Katzew. The exhibition runs until Oct. 30. To find out more, visit LACMA.org
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