LACMA

ShopMembershipMyLACMATickets
LACMA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
info@lacma.org
(323) 857-6000
Sign up to receive emails
Subscribe
© Museum Associates 2025

Museum Hours

Monday

11 am–6 pm

Tuesday

11 am–6 pm

Wednesday

Closed

Thursday

11 am–6 pm

Friday

11 am–8 pm

Saturday

10 am–7 pm

Sunday

10 am–7 pm

 

  • About LACMA
  • Jobs
  • Building LACMA
  • Host An Event
  • Unframed
  • Press
  • FAQs
  • Log in to MyLACMA
  • Privacy Policy
© Museum Associates 2025
Collections

Nicolás Enríquez
The Crucifixion (La crucifixión)1790

Not on view
Oil painting of a crucifixion scene, pale male figure on a wooden cross with 'INRI' placard, skull and bones at base, dark cityscape in distance
Oil painting, detail showing bare wounded feet nailed to a cross above rocky ground with a skull and bones at lower left; a darkened cityscape with domed buildings and hills extends across the right background under a stormy sky.
Detail of a dark oil painting showing a painted inscription in Latin script reading "Nicolaus Enriq. Fecit. Mexici anno 1790," with foliage and rocky ground visible at right.
Artist or Maker
Nicolás Enríquez
Mexico, 1704-circa 1790
Title
The Crucifixion (La crucifixión)
Date Made
1790
Medium
Oil on copper
Dimensions
Unframed: 16 3/4 × 12 7/8 in. (42.55 × 32.7 cm); framed: 19 1/8 × 15 3/8 × 1 in. (48.5775 × 39.0525 × 2.54 cm)
Credit Line
Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number
M.2008.33
Classification
Paintings
Collecting Area
Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes

Nicolás Enríquez excelled in the creation of paintings on copper. Copper was considered a precious material in part because of the great brilliance that it lent to paint, which gave the works the appearance of finely crafted cloisonné. This devotional image of the Crucifixion follows the tradition of the Sevillian artists Sebastián de Arteaga (1610–1652) and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682), who chose to render the crucified Christ with three nails. In this they departed from the more canonical depictions of Christ nailed to the cross with four nails, as prescribed by the Sevillian painter Francisco Pacheco (1564–1644) in his treatise Arte de la pintura (1649).


Ilona Katzew, 2008

Provenance

Private collection, London; Nicolás Cortés, London, c. 1960–70; Jaime Eguiguren - Arts & Antiques, Buenos Aires, c. 1999; Caylus Anticuario S.A, Madrid, 2001; LACMA, 2008.