Miguel González
The Virgin of Guadalupe (Virgen de Guadalupe)circa 1690

On view:

Geffen Galleries, Spanish America at the Center of the World

Vertical oil painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe, a standing robed figure in a gold mandorla, surrounded by four narrative cartouches, winged cherubs, and an ornate black-and-red floral border

Lacquerwork panel on black ground depicting a multi-masted sailing vessel with red flags, surrounded by gilt foliage, blossoms, and red berries; worn and flaking surface reveals aged gilding beneath.

Artist or Maker: Miguel González
Mexico, circa 1664/66-after 1704
Title: The Virgin of Guadalupe (Virgen de Guadalupe)
Date Made: circa 1690
Medium: Oil on canvas on wood, inlaid with mother-of-pearl (enconchado)
Dimensions: Unframed: 39 × 27 1/2 in. (99.1 × 69.9 cm); framed: 49 × 37 1/2 in. (124.46 × 95.25 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number: M.2011.1
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the most reproduced images of the Christian world. This work by Miguel González depicts the Virgin atop an eagle perched on a cactus—Mexico City’s coat of arms. Four vignettes, each supported by a fluttering angel, narrate her appearances to the Indigenous commoner Juan Diego in 1531 at the Hill of Tepeyac, north of Mexico City. The scenes culminate in the miracle that imprinted her image on his cloak, which he unfolded before Bishop Juan de Zumárraga (r. 1528–47) as proof. The elaborate lacquer-imitation frame combines floral motifs and birds with Marian symbols—including those of the Litany of the Virgin.

Among the most dazzling paintings invented in New Spain were those encrusted with small sheets of mother-of-pearl (concha de perla), known as enconchados. The application of this material, which endows paintings with a unique glow, references a range of Asian decorative arts that flowed in through various trade networks. Pearls had also been associated with the legendary riches of the Americas since the Spanish conquest. Their use in works such as this connoted imperial power, ostentation, and wealth. The genre reached its apogee from roughly 1680 to 1700, and González was among its most salient practitioners. With their mixed technique, the opalescent enconchados stood at the juncture of imperial vision, global trade, religious fervor, and colonial invention.

Ilona Katzew

2024
Provenance: Possibly José María Ybarra Gutiérrez de Caviedes (1816–1878), Seville, 1840s; by inheri - tance to his son Luis Ybarra González (1849–1916), Seville, 1878; by inheritance to his son Nicolás Ybarra y Gómez-Rull (1894–1966), Seville; gifted to his son Nicolás Ybarra Llosent (1931–2015), Seville, 1960; transferred to his wife Julia Moreno Pidal (b. 1936), Seville; Derek Johns Ltd., London, 2010; LACMA, 2011.
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, “New Acquisition: Miguel Gonzalez, Virgin of Guadalupe,” Unframed, January 25, 2011, https://unframed.lacma.org/2011/01/25/new-acquisition-miguel-gonzalez-virgin-of-guadalupe.
Selected Exhibition History: Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World. November 6, 2011 - January 29, 2012
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

Related Unframed

Miguel González
The Virgin of Guadalupe (Virgen de Guadalupe)circa 1690

On view:

Geffen Galleries, Spanish America at the Center of the World

Artist or Maker: Miguel González
Mexico, circa 1664/66-after 1704
Title: The Virgin of Guadalupe (Virgen de Guadalupe)
Date Made: circa 1690
Medium: Oil on canvas on wood, inlaid with mother-of-pearl (enconchado)
Dimensions: Unframed: 39 × 27 1/2 in. (99.1 × 69.9 cm); framed: 49 × 37 1/2 in. (124.46 × 95.25 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number: M.2011.1
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the most reproduced images of the Christian world. This work by Miguel González depicts the Virgin atop an eagle perched on a cactus—Mexico City’s coat of arms. Four vignettes, each supported by a fluttering angel, narrate her appearances to the Indigenous commoner Juan Diego in 1531 at the Hill of Tepeyac, north of Mexico City. The scenes culminate in the miracle that imprinted her image on his cloak, which he unfolded before Bishop Juan de Zumárraga (r. 1528–47) as proof. The elaborate lacquer-imitation frame combines floral motifs and birds with Marian symbols—including those of the Litany of the Virgin.

Among the most dazzling paintings invented in New Spain were those encrusted with small sheets of mother-of-pearl (concha de perla), known as enconchados. The application of this material, which endows paintings with a unique glow, references a range of Asian decorative arts that flowed in through various trade networks. Pearls had also been associated with the legendary riches of the Americas since the Spanish conquest. Their use in works such as this connoted imperial power, ostentation, and wealth. The genre reached its apogee from roughly 1680 to 1700, and González was among its most salient practitioners. With their mixed technique, the opalescent enconchados stood at the juncture of imperial vision, global trade, religious fervor, and colonial invention.

Ilona Katzew

2024
Provenance: Possibly José María Ybarra Gutiérrez de Caviedes (1816–1878), Seville, 1840s; by inheri - tance to his son Luis Ybarra González (1849–1916), Seville, 1878; by inheritance to his son Nicolás Ybarra y Gómez-Rull (1894–1966), Seville; gifted to his son Nicolás Ybarra Llosent (1931–2015), Seville, 1960; transferred to his wife Julia Moreno Pidal (b. 1936), Seville; Derek Johns Ltd., London, 2010; LACMA, 2011.
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, “New Acquisition: Miguel Gonzalez, Virgin of Guadalupe,” Unframed, January 25, 2011, https://unframed.lacma.org/2011/01/25/new-acquisition-miguel-gonzalez-virgin-of-guadalupe.
Selected Exhibition History: Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World. November 6, 2011 - January 29, 2012
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

Related Unframed

The World on Three Plates

October 17, 2022
Maite Gomez-Rejón

A Scavenger Hunt for Families through Archive of the World

October 5, 2022
Rachel Kaplan