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Collections

Nicolás Enríquez
The Marriage of the Virgin (Desposorios de la Virgen)1745

On view:
Geffen Galleries
Oil painting of a marriage ceremony inside a gray stone colonnaded hall, with a robed elder joining the hands of a young couple while cherubs scatter flowers overhead
Oil painting of three winged putti in flight within a gray stone architectural arcade, tipping a wicker basket to scatter red, white, and blue flowers downward onto a teal textile decorated with bold red floral embroidery.
Oil painting of a betrothal scene with a bearded elder in red robes and jeweled breastplate joining the hands of a young man in green and a young woman in pink with a blue mantle, flanked by several onlookers and a floral tapestry backdrop, rendered in smooth brushwork with warm, saturated colors.
Oil painting detail showing three figures and an elderly bearded man in a golden crown gazing upward, with a white dove emitting radiating rays above a flowering staff, a lit candle at left, and a teal background with red and white floral pattern.
Oil painting of a young woman in a rose-colored gown and blue mantle, standing before classical columns surrounded by several female figures and a small winged angel child in pink, rendered with smooth brushwork and rich jewel-toned drapery.
Oil painting of a group of figures in ancient dress gathered in a columned interior. A central bearded man in green robes faces an elderly white-bearded figure in red and gold vestments at right. A young child in blue holds white lilies in the foreground. Scattered flowers decorate the tiled floor. Smooth, detailed brushwork with vivid saturated colors.
Artist or Maker
Nicolás Enríquez
Mexico, 1704-circa 1790
Title
The Marriage of the Virgin (Desposorios de la Virgen)
Date Made
1745
Medium
Oil on copper
Dimensions
Unframed: 41 5/16 × 32 11/16 in. (105 × 83 cm); framed: 49 1/4 × 41 1/2 × 2 3/4 in. (125.1 × 105.41 × 6.99 cm)
Credit Line
Purchased with funds provided by Kelvin Davis, Lynda and Stewart Resnick, Kathy and Frank Baxter, Beth and Josh Friedman, and Jane and Terry Semel through the 2012 Collectors Committee
Accession Number
M.2012.38.1
Classification
Paintings
Collecting Area
Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes

Nicolás Enríquez’s scenes from the life of the Virgin (see also M.2012.38.2 and M.2016.148) are notable for the unusually large size of the copper plates on which they are painted and for citing European and local source material as part of the creative process. The Marriage of the Virgin, in which angels hover above the couple and strew flowers, loosely interprets a print based on a painting by the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640). The floral tapestry or courtly cloth hanging in the back—a convention in European paintings to honor the Virgin and Christ—underscores the painting’s decorative aspect.

Enríquez was part of an educated group of painters in Mexico who organized informal art academies and engaged in discussions about the theory and practice of art. He developed a reputation for highly finished oil paintings on copper, such as this one, and used the support extensively throughout his career. The smoothness of copper, when properly prepared, allows 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
Vicente Sánchez, Valencia, Spain, late 19th–early 20th century; by inheritance to his wife, María Pilar González Sánchez, Madrid; by inheritance to private collection, Madrid; Galería Coll & Cortés, Madrid, 2012; LACMA, 2012.
Selected Bibliography
  • Katzew, Ilona, ed. Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Mexico City: Fomento Cultural Banamex; New York: DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2017.
  • 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: Two Paintings by Nicolás Enríquez,” Unframed, April 25, 2012, https://unframed.lacma.org/2012/04/25/new-acquisition-two-paintings-by-nicolas-enriquez.
Selected Exhibition History
  • Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici . June 29 - October 15, 2017
  • Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici . Sunday, November 19, 2017 - Sunday, March 18, 2018
  • Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici . April 24 - July 22, 2018
  • 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

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