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Collections

Attributed to Francisco Antonio Vallejo
Allegory of the Crucifixion with Jesuit Saints (Alegoría de la Crucifixión con santos jesuitas)circa 1770

On view:
Geffen Galleries
Oil painting, multi-figure religious composition centered on a crucifixion scene surrounded by saints, angels, and kneeling figures in tiered heavenly and earthly zones
Artist or Maker
Attributed to Francisco Antonio Vallejo
Mexico, 1722-1787
Title
Allegory of the Crucifixion with Jesuit Saints (Alegoría de la Crucifixión con santos jesuitas)
Date Made
circa 1770
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Unframed: 32 1/2 × 22 1/4 in. (82.6 × 56.5 cm); framed: 40 3/8 × 33 5/8 × 2 1/2 in. (102.55 × 85.41 × 6.35 cm)
Credit Line
Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number
M.2016.110.2
Classification
Paintings
Collecting Area
Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes

This painting of Christ surrounded by a panoply of saints was likely created for a member of the Jesuit order—presumably the figure on the lower right who gazes directly at the viewer. Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the order’s founder, kneels in the foreground in front of the pope and opposite the king of Spain. Both surrender their crowns, paying homage to Christ. This type of image might have served a mnemonic function, helping devotees to recall the lives of the saints. It was also a poignant allegory of divine over earthly power.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is prominently depicted above Christ, a devotion that originated in medieval times but was especially promoted by the Jesuits in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The cult came under increasing scrutiny, in part because of its connection to the Jesuits and the concerted effort of rulers in Spain, Portugal, and France to suppress the order due to its growing wealth and power. After the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, King Charles III even attempted to banish all Sacred Heart imagery from his domains, but images persisted and acquired even more political overtones.

Ilona Katzew

2024

Provenance
José Joaquín de Arguinzoniz (b. 1778, Durango, Spain; in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, 1803–c. 1815; returned to Durango, c. 1815); or his grandson Joaquín Arguinzoniz y Díez Gutiérrez (1845–1911), San Luis Potosí (property shipped to Durango, c. 1914); by inheritance to Antonio Manuel Arguinzoniz Garay Artabe (b. 1852, Durango) and María del Carmen Arguinzoniz y Olalde (1886–1971, Bilbao, Spain); by inheritance to her daughter María Begoña Díaz de Mendívil Arguinzoniz (1923–2015, b. Vitoria, Spain, d. Madrid); Caylus Anticuario SA, Madrid, 2015; LACMA, 2016.
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

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