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

Not on view

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 was a member of the first academy of painters established in Mexico around 1722. This set stands out for the unusually large size of the copper plates and for quoting local and European sources. The Marriage of the Virgin cites a composition by Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), while The Visitation (https://collections.lacma.org/node/2158022" >M.2016.148) adapts a print in Jerónimo Nadal’s Evangelicae historiae imagines (1593–94), an influential Jesuit text.

In the Adoration of the Kings (https://collections.lacma.org/node/600715" >M.2012.38.2), Enríquez referenced a major work in Mexico City’s cathedral by his predecessor Juan Rodríguez Juárez—notably, the treasure-chest-wielding figure portrayed from behind (which in turn drew on a famous print of the Battles of Alexander) by Bernard Picart (1673–1733). Additional details, such as the small children, evoke yet another print in Nadal’s book of the same subject. By referencing these works, Enríquez asserted the significance of local and European traditions alike in the creative process of New Spanish painters.

From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entry by Ilona Katzew and Aaron M. Hyman in the accompanying publication, cat. no. 61, pp. 250–56)
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 . 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 . Sunday, November 19, 2017 - Sunday, March 18, 2018
Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici . April 24 - July 22, 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. 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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