The Defense of the Eucharist and Charles II (La defensa de la Eucaristía y Carlos II)

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The Defense of the Eucharist and Charles II (La defensa de la Eucaristía y Carlos II)

Peru, Cuzco school, circa 1675-1700
Paintings
Oil on canvas
Unframed: 62 × 48 7/16 in. (157.5 × 123 cm); framed: 69 × 55 1/4 × 2 1/2 in. (175.26 × 140.34 × 6.35 cm)
Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund (M.2021.42)
Not currently on public view

Provenance

Private collection, Madrid, c. 1960–2019; Ansorena, Madrid, November 5, 2019, lot 303; Carteia Fine Arts, Madrid, 2019; LACMA, 2021.

Label

This political allegory depicts Charles II (r.

...

This political allegory depicts Charles II (r. 1665–1700) as defender of the Catholic faith, while figures representing Islam and Protestantism try to topple the Holy Sacrament (a symbol of the Habsburg monarchy). The subject draws on Spanish political thought and related images, but this configuration was a Cuzco invention associated with the Spanish-born bishop Manuel de Mollinedo y Angulo (r. 1673–99). A staunch royalist, Mollinedo sought to reform local parishes and embellish the churches across his diocese. He commissioned over eighty gilded monstrances (similar to the one depicted here) for the region’s churches, and promoted new iconographies that celebrated Cuzco’s loyalty to the Spanish monarchy.


From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entry by Ilona Katzew in the accompanying publication, cat. no. 10, pp. 65–69)
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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