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Collections

Attributed to Luis Berrueco
Saint Francis before Pope Honorius III (San Francisco ante el Papa Honorio III)circa 1710

Not on view
Oil painting of a papal audience with cardinals in red robes and two kneeling figures in brown Franciscan habits, an elderly pope in a gold tiara holding a document at right
Oil painting detail of a tonsured man in a coarse brown habit with rope belt, kneeling and gazing upward, beside a white and red draped curtain, with another figure's legs visible at upper left.
Oil painting detail showing two figures in red and white robes holding a partially unrolled scroll inscribed with Latin text in cursive script, with lace cuffs and embroidered fabric visible.
Oil painting, bust-length portrait of a bearded man in red cardinal's robes and white collar, set against a deep red draped curtain and green background, with a partially visible Latin inscription at lower right.
Artist or Maker
Attributed to Luis Berrueco
Mexico, Puebla, active first half of the 18th century
Title
Saint Francis before Pope Honorius III (San Francisco ante el Papa Honorio III)
Date Made
circa 1710
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Unframed: 58 1/2 × 86 1/2 in. (148.6 × 219.7 cm); framed (estimate): 64 7/8 × 92 9/16 × 1 5/8 in. (164.78 × 235.11 × 4.13 cm)
Credit Line
Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number
M.2012.143.1
Classification
Paintings
Collecting Area
Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes

This painting depicts a scene from the life of Saint Francis in which the pope presents him with the written rule of the Franciscan order in 1223. Luis Berrueco, who descended from a prominent dynasty of painters in Puebla, created the work during a turbulent time for Mexico’s church, when the authority of the mendicant orders was under siege. The picture was likely commissioned as a declaration of the power of the regular orders and their role in the religious life of New Spain, which included the administration of Indigenous parishes.


From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entry by Ilona Katzew in the accompanying publication, cat. no. 6, pp. 50–53)

Provenance
Carlos Alberto Osona, Santa Barbara, California, 1980s; Osuna Art & Antiques Ltd. (Ramón Osuna), Washington, DC, 1986; Frederick and Jan Mayer, Denver, 1988; on loan to the Denver Art Museum, 1988–2007; Valery Taylor Gallery (Valery Taylor Brown), Denver, 2008; LACMA, 2012.
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.
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