The Divine Shepherdess (La Divina Pastora)

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The Divine Shepherdess (La Divina Pastora)

Mexico, circa 1760
Paintings
Oil on copper, tortoiseshell and bone frame
Unframed: 9 1/2 × 7 3/16 in. (24.1 × 18.3 cm); framed: 13 1/2 × 11 1/4 × 1 1/8 in. (34.3 × 28.6 × 2.9 cm)
Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund (M.2008.31)
Not currently on public view

Provenance

Private collection, Madrid; Antigüedades Gusano, Madrid, 2004; private collection, 2004; Caylus Anticuario SA, Madrid, 2005; LACMA, 2008.

Label

The advocation of the Divine Shepherdess originated in Seville in 1703 and quickly spread to Spanish America.

...

The advocation of the Divine Shepherdess originated in Seville in 1703 and quickly spread to Spanish America. After the Capuchin friar Isidore of Seville (1622–1750) had a vision of the Virgin, he commissioned a painting, giving precise instructions to the artist: Mary, wearing a red gown, blue mantle, and shepherdess hat, was to be seated on a rock and feeding roses to her flock, while a strayed sheep ensnared by the Devil would be saved by Saint Michael. Coinciding with the cult’s rising popularity in Mexico, Miguel Cabrera created a number of versions—large and small.


From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entry by Ilona Katzew in the accompanying publication, cat. no. 24, pp. 125–28)
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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