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 was part of a sophisticated group of painters in Mexico who organized informal art academies and engaged in discussions about the theory and practice of art. In this small devotional painting of the Crucifixion, Enríquez spotlights the figure of Christ to heighten the sense of pathos. He follows the tradition of the Sevillian artist Sebastián López de Arteaga (1610–1652), who came to Mexico around 1640. Arteaga favored rendering Christ with three nails instead of four as prescribed by the Sevillian painter Francisco Pacheco (1564–1644) in his seminal treatise Arte de la pintura (1649).

Enríquez developed a reputation for his highly finished oil paintings on copper, a support he used extensively throughout his career. The tradition of copper painting first developed in Italy and Flanders in the sixteenth century. It was quickly introduced to New Spain, where it was widely used, especially in the eighteenth century. The smoothness of copper, when properly prepared, allowed for the almost seamless application of paint, imbuing the images with a jewel-like quality that made the material especially attractive to artists and their patrons.

Ilona Katzew

2024
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.

Nicolás Enríquez
The Crucifixion (La crucifixión)1790

Not on view

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 was part of a sophisticated group of painters in Mexico who organized informal art academies and engaged in discussions about the theory and practice of art. In this small devotional painting of the Crucifixion, Enríquez spotlights the figure of Christ to heighten the sense of pathos. He follows the tradition of the Sevillian artist Sebastián López de Arteaga (1610–1652), who came to Mexico around 1640. Arteaga favored rendering Christ with three nails instead of four as prescribed by the Sevillian painter Francisco Pacheco (1564–1644) in his seminal treatise Arte de la pintura (1649).

Enríquez developed a reputation for his highly finished oil paintings on copper, a support he used extensively throughout his career. The tradition of copper painting first developed in Italy and Flanders in the sixteenth century. It was quickly introduced to New Spain, where it was widely used, especially in the eighteenth century. The smoothness of copper, when properly prepared, allowed for the almost seamless application of paint, imbuing the images with a jewel-like quality that made the material especially attractive to artists and their patrons.

Ilona Katzew

2024
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.