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: When the Virgin Mary was three, her parents brought her to the Temple of Jerusalem to dedicate her life to serving God. She impressed onlookers by mounting the temple steps by herself to be accepted into the holy space. In creating his composition, Juan Francisco de Aguilera referenced a painting by the French artist Simon Vouet (1590–1649), which he knew from a print. Aguilera’s canvas, which likely formed part of a series of the life of the Virgin, diverges from conventional renditions by emphasizing the emotional connection between the figures. The clergy promoted this type of intimate depiction to draw in the faithful.

Aguilera was part of an innovative circle of artists in Mexico City that ushered in a pictorial shift by introducing a softer style and more luminous palette. Although there are many questions about his origin, archival documentation places him in Mexico City around 1722 as a member of an informal academy of painting established by the brothers Juan Rodríguez Juárez (1675–1728) and Nicolás Rodríguez Juárez (1667–1734).

Ilona Katzew

2024
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. “Valiant Styles: New Spanish Painting, 1700–1785.” In Painting in Latin America, 1550–1820, edited by Luisa Elena Alcalá and Jonathan Brown. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014, pp. 148–203.
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. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024

Related Exhibitions

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

Not on view

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: When the Virgin Mary was three, her parents brought her to the Temple of Jerusalem to dedicate her life to serving God. She impressed onlookers by mounting the temple steps by herself to be accepted into the holy space. In creating his composition, Juan Francisco de Aguilera referenced a painting by the French artist Simon Vouet (1590–1649), which he knew from a print. Aguilera’s canvas, which likely formed part of a series of the life of the Virgin, diverges from conventional renditions by emphasizing the emotional connection between the figures. The clergy promoted this type of intimate depiction to draw in the faithful.

Aguilera was part of an innovative circle of artists in Mexico City that ushered in a pictorial shift by introducing a softer style and more luminous palette. Although there are many questions about his origin, archival documentation places him in Mexico City around 1722 as a member of an informal academy of painting established by the brothers Juan Rodríguez Juárez (1675–1728) and Nicolás Rodríguez Juárez (1667–1734).

Ilona Katzew

2024
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. “Valiant Styles: New Spanish Painting, 1700–1785.” In Painting in Latin America, 1550–1820, edited by Luisa Elena Alcalá and Jonathan Brown. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014, pp. 148–203.
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. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024