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Collections

Miguel Cabrera
The Divine Shepherdess (La Divina Pastora)circa 1760

Not on view
Oil painting of a seated woman in a blue cloak and wide-brimmed hat, holding a shepherd's crook, surrounded by white lambs and cherubs, with two putti lowering a golden crown above her head
Oil painting in a tortoiseshell and ivory inlaid frame. A seated woman in blue mantle, red dress, and wide-brimmed hat holds a staff while surrounded by white lambs and cherubs; two putti above lower a golden crown. Landscape background with trees and sky. Cartouche at bottom with Spanish text in Latin script.
Artist or Maker
Miguel Cabrera
Mexico, circa 1710-1768
Title
The Divine Shepherdess (La Divina Pastora)
Date Made
circa 1760
Medium
Oil on copper, tortoiseshell and bone frame
Dimensions
Unframed: 9 1/2 × 7 3/16 in. (24.1 × 18.3 cm); framed: 13 1/2 × 11 1/4 × 1 1/8 in. (34.3 × 28.6 × 2.9 cm)
Credit Line
Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number
M.2008.31
Classification
Paintings
Collecting Area
Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes

The advocation of the Divine Shepherdess originated in Seville in 1703 and quickly spread to Spanish America. After the Capuchin friar Isidore of Seville (1622–1750) had a vision of the Virgin, he commissioned a painting, giving precise instructions to the artist: Mary, wearing a red gown, blue mantle, and shepherdess hat, was to be seated on a rock and feeding roses to her flock, while a strayed sheep ensnared by the Devil would be saved by Saint Michael. Coinciding with the cult’s rising popularity in Mexico, Miguel Cabrera created a number of versions—large and small.


From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entry by Ilona Katzew in the accompanying publication, cat. no. 24, pp. 125–28)

Provenance

Private collection, Madrid; Antigüedades Gusano, Madrid, 2004; private collection, 2004; Caylus Anticuario SA, Madrid, 2005; LACMA, 2008.

Selected 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.
Selected Exhibition History
  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024
  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024