José de Páez
Christ of Ixmiquilpan or “Señor de Santa Teresa” (Cristo de Ixmiquilpan o “Señor de Santa Teresa”)circa 1750-1760

Not on view

Oil painting of a crucifixion scene, pale figure on a dark wooden cross wearing an embroidered gold and white loincloth, flanked by four silver decorative vessels below, with a Spanish inscription along the bottom edge

Oil painting detail showing two ornate silver altar vases with teardrop-shaped finials decorated in relief with scrolling acanthus leaves and flowers, set against a black background on a stone ledge, with a partially visible figure at upper left and a Latin-script inscription on a blue cartouche at bottom.

Oil painting detail of a figure's torso and legs against a black background, wearing an ornate white loincloth with gold scrollwork embroidery and a quatrefoil decorative panel; a wound is visible on the side.

Artist or Maker: José de Páez
Mexico, 1721-circa 1790
Title: Christ of Ixmiquilpan or “Señor de Santa Teresa” (Cristo de Ixmiquilpan o “Señor de Santa Teresa”)
Date Made: circa 1750-1760
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Unframed: 33 3/4 × 24 1/2 in. (85.7 × 62.2 cm); framed: 42 × 32 1/2 × 2 in. (106.68 × 82.55 × 5.08 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number: M.2012.143.2
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: The Christ of Ixmiquilpan was a life-size cornstalk-paste image (imagen en caña de maíz) venerated at the church of Mapethé, near the town of Ixmiquilpan, Mexico. In the seventeenth century the sculpture had become disfigured and was ordered buried with the next townsperson to die. Six years passed without any deaths. Suddenly, the effigy detached from the cross and miraculously renovated itself. In 1621 the image was transferred to the Carmelite convent of Santa Teresa in Mexico City. Its fame as a miracle worker grew, yet only a few copies after the original on its altar were created for private and public veneration.

From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entry by Ilona Katzew in the accompanying publication, cat. no. 18, pp. 114–17)
Provenance: Antigüedades Pedro Montelongo, Seville, 1996; Caylus Anticuario SA, Madrid, 1997; Frederick and Jan Mayer, Denver, 1997; Valery Taylor Gallery (Valery Taylor Brown), Denver, 2012; 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.
Taylor, William B. Theater of a Thousand Wonders: A History of Miraculous Images and Shrines in New Spain. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016.
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

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Tuesday	11 am–6 pm
Wednesday	Closed
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Friday	11 am–8 pm
Saturday	10 am–7 pm
Sunday	10 am–7 pm