Friar’s Badge with the Nativity (Medallón de fraile con la Natividad)

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Friar’s Badge with the Nativity (Medallón de fraile con la Natividad)

Mexico, circa 1768
Paintings
Oil on copper
4 1/2 × 3 1/2 in. (11.4 × 8.9 cm)
Purchased with funds provided by the Joseph B. Gould Foundation (M.2005.59)
Not currently on public view

Provenance

Keen family, Buenos Aires, 19th century; by inheritance to Federico Keen (d. 1990) and Margarita Brown (d. 2014), c. 1920; by inheritance to their son Jeremy Keen, Buenos Aires, c....
Keen family, Buenos Aires, 19th century; by inheritance to Federico Keen (d. 1990) and Margarita Brown (d. 2014), c. 1920; by inheritance to their son Jeremy Keen, Buenos Aires, c. 1990; Jaime Eguiguren Art & Antiques, Buenos Aires, 1997; LACMA, 2005.
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Label

Like the nuns, brothers of the Bethlehemite hospital order wore badges.

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Like the nuns, brothers of the Bethlehemite hospital order wore badges. Devoted to educating poor children and helping the sick, the order was established around 1660 in Guatemala and quickly spread throughout Spanish America. Its founder, Pedro de San José de Betancourt (1626–1667), was profoundly devoted to the Virgin of Bethlehem and the mystery of the Nativity. José de Páez painted several badges with the Nativity, which members were prescribed to wear on their cape.


From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entry by Ilona Katzew in the accompanying publication, cat. no. 23, pp. 119–24)
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Bibliography

  • Katzew, Ilona, ed. Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800: Highlights from LACMA’s Collection. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books/D.A.P., 2022.

Exhibition history

  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800*** Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800*** Nashville, TN, Frist Art Museum, October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024