Saint John of Nepomuk (San Juan Nepomuceno)

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Saint John of Nepomuk (San Juan Nepomuceno)

Mexico, 1770
Paintings
Oil on copper
Unframed: 17 5/8 × 13 1/8 in. (44.8 × 33.3 cm); framed: 23 1/16 × 18 9/16 × 1 3/4 in. (58.58 × 47.15 × 4.45 cm)
Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund (M.2016.110.1)
Latin American Art
Not currently on public view

Provenance

José Joaquín de Arguinzoniz (b. 1778, Durango, Spain; in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, 1803–c. 1815; returned to Durango, c....
José Joaquín de Arguinzoniz (b. 1778, Durango, Spain; in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, 1803–c. 1815; returned to Durango, c. 1815); or his grandson Joaquín Arguinzoniz y Díez Gutiérrez (1845–1911), San Luis Potosí (property shipped to Durango, c. 1914); by inheritance to Antonio Manuel Arguinzoniz Garay Artabe (b. 1852, Durango) and María del Carmen Arguinzoniz y Olalde (1886–1971, Bilbao, Spain); by inheritance to her daughter María Begoña Díaz de Mendívil Arguinzoniz (1923–2015, b. Vitoria, Spain, d. Madrid); Caylus Anticuario SA, Madrid, 2015; LACMA, 2016.
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Label

In 1393 Saint John of Nepomuk was brutally tortured by King Wenceslaus of Bohemia for refusing to reveal the secrets of his wife’s confession.

...

In 1393 Saint John of Nepomuk was brutally tortured by King Wenceslaus of Bohemia for refusing to reveal the secrets of his wife’s confession. The monarch ordered the priest of Prague drowned in the Moldova River; when his body was exhumed in 1719, his reddish tongue allegedly remained intact, still pulsating with life.

In Mexico, the Jesuits promoted the saint as a symbol of resilience and discretion at the dawn of the order’s expulsion (1767). In this copper painting, created for private worship, the saint is depicted with the red tongue hanging from his priestly robes.


From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entry by Ilona Katzew in the accompanying publication, cat. no. 26, pp. 133–35)
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Bibliography

  • Katzew, Ilona, ed. Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Mexico City: Fomento Cultural Banamex; New York: DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2017.
  • Katzew, Ilona, ed. Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Mexico City: Fomento Cultural Banamex; New York: DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2017.
  • 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.
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Exhibition history

  • Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, November 19, 2017 - March 18, 2018
  • 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
  • Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, November 19, 2017 - March 18, 2018
  • 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
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