Juan Francisco de Aguilera
The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple (La presentación de la Virgen en el Templo)1720

Not on view

Oil painting of a multi-figure religious scene in a temple interior, with a robed elder receiving a crowned child on steps, attended by onlookers and two floating cherubs above

Oil painting, detail of a young woman in a vivid blue mantle and floral crown, hands raised at chest height, surrounded by partially visible figures in warm red and ochre tones, with an elderly bearded figure in the lower right.

Oil painting of two chubby winged putti in flight against a dark cloudy sky, one draped in red fabric and the other in blue, leaning over a classical Ionic column capital with soft, blended brushwork.

Close-up of a dark reddish-brown painted surface showing a cursive signature reading 'Aguilera Fac.' with visible canvas texture.

Artist or Maker: Juan Francisco de Aguilera
Spain [?], active Mexico, first quarter of the 18th century
Title: The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple (La presentación de la Virgen en el Templo)
Date Made: 1720
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Unframed: 55 1/2 × 39 13/16 in. (141 × 101.1 cm); framed: 61 3/8 × 45 3/4 × 2 1/8 in. (155.89 × 116.21 × 5.4 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number: M.2010.98
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: 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
Provenance: 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.
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.
Ilona Katzew, “Just Acquired: Spanish Colonial Paintings by Ramirez and Aguilera,” Unframed, October 21, 2010, https://unframed.lacma.org/2010/10/21/just-acquired-spanish-colonial-paintings-by-ramirez-and-aguilera.
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

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