Juan Francisco de Aguilera is considered a seminal figure in the history of eighteenth-century Mexican painting. His significance, however, does not match the lack of documentation about his life and work. While some scholars have hypothesized that he was born in Spain, no documentation has confirmed his origin or provided any indication of where he was trained. Archival documentation does place him in Mexico City around 1722 as a member of the first academy of painting established by the brothers Juan and Nicolás Rodríguez Juárez (1667–1734; 1675–1728). In fact, along with the painter Juan Rodríguez Juárez (and Cristóbal de Villalpando before them), Aguilera is believed to have impelled a major stylistic shift in the eighteenth century. These artists introduced a softer, looser, and more vaporous style that is reminiscent of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617/18–1682) and the school of Seville, but that does not necessarily derive from it. This composition, for example, is modeled after a work by the French painter Simon Vouet (1590–1649) of 1641 (Musée du Louvre, Paris), which Aguilera probably knew from a print.

Ilona Katzew, 2010

Private collection, Madrid; art market, Toledo, Spain; Ansorena, Madrid, Auction 301, November 11, 2008, lot 224; Abad Land Fine Art SL, Madrid, 2009; Manuel Piñanes, Madrid, 2009; LACMA, 2010.

Juan Francisco de Aguilera belonged to the generation of Mexican artists that introduced a softer pictorial style and more luminous palette in the early eighteenth century. For this work, Aguilera referenced a painting by the French artist Simon Vouet (1590–1649), which he knew from a print. Aguilera’s painting, which likely formed part of a series of the Life of the Virgin, diverges from conventional renditions by emphasizing the emotional connection between the figures. The clergy promoted this type of intimate depiction to draw the faithful in.

From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entry by Paula Mues Orts in the accompanying publication, cat. no. 8, pp. 58–60)

• Katzew, Ilona. “Valiant Styles: New Spanish Painting, 1700–1785.” In Painting in Latin America, 1550–1820, edited by Luisa Elena Alcalá and Jonathan Brown. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014, pp. 148–203.
• 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.