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: 78 × 101 3/4 × 6 3/4 in. (198.12 × 258.45 × 17.13 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. Francis’s trusted companion, Brother Leo, appears at the left looking out at the viewer. Luis Berrueco, who descended from a prominent dynasty of painters in Puebla, created this work during a turbulent time in the history of Mexico’s church, when the authority of the Franciscans was under siege. The picture can be read as a declaration of the power of the mendicant orders and their role in the religious life of New Spain, which included the administration of Indigenous parishes.

Ilona Katzew

2024
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. 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

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

Not on view

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: 78 × 101 3/4 × 6 3/4 in. (198.12 × 258.45 × 17.13 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. Francis’s trusted companion, Brother Leo, appears at the left looking out at the viewer. Luis Berrueco, who descended from a prominent dynasty of painters in Puebla, created this work during a turbulent time in the history of Mexico’s church, when the authority of the Franciscans was under siege. The picture can be read as a declaration of the power of the mendicant orders and their role in the religious life of New Spain, which included the administration of Indigenous parishes.

Ilona Katzew

2024
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. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024