Nicolás Enríquez
The Visitation and the Birth of Saint John the Baptist (La visitación y el nacimiento de san Juan Bautista)1746

Not on view

Vertical oil painting with a split composition: a courtyard scene showing angels on clouds above figures greeting each other, and an adjacent interior room with attendants gathered around a canopied bed

Oil painting of four figures in an interior with tiled floor. A woman in blue and red robes bends toward a kneeling figure in orange and gray; a small white dog lies on the floor between them. Two men in red garments stand in the background, one bearded and elderly with a staff.

Oil painting of five winged figures among clouds: two larger angels in orange-red and gold robes at left and right, a smaller angel holding an open book at center top, and two cherubs below holding a ribbon scroll inscribed "MAGNIFICAT ANIMA MEA DOMINUM" in Latin. A rooftop is visible in the lower left corner.

Detail of an oil painting showing a flat brown surface with two lines of painted Spanish script in white lettering, reading a date of July 8, 1746, with additional partially legible text referencing "Láminas" and "Enríquez en Mex"

Oil painting detail of a small gray cat curled with tail wrapped around its body, rendered in fine brushwork against a warm brown wooden floor with diagonal lines.

Oil painting detail of five figures in biblical-era dress gathered near a stone ledge; a woman in teal drapery gestures toward a large bronze vessel at right, while others look upward; a silver goblet and plate rest on the ledge in the foreground.

Oil painting detail of a figure in a white blouse and rust-red skirt kneeling before a fireplace with glowing embers, holding a cloth over iron andirons; a second figure in blue drapery is partially visible at right.

Oil painting of an interior birth scene with several figures gathered around a woman reclining in a canopied bed draped in red. A woman in blue holds a swaddled infant at left; an elderly man with a walking staff leans toward the bed; a youth carries a cup at right. A child with a basin kneels in the foreground. Rich colors and smooth brushwork throughout.

Artist or Maker: Nicolás Enríquez
Mexico, 1704-circa 1790
Title: The Visitation and the Birth of Saint John the Baptist (La visitación y el nacimiento de san Juan Bautista)
Date Made: 1746
Medium: Oil on copper
Dimensions: Unframed: 41 3/4 × 33 1/4 in. (106.5 × 84.5 cm); framed: 48 13/16 × 40 3/16 × 1 9/16 in. (124 × 102 × 4 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number: M.2016.148
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 (https://collections.lacma.org/node/600716" >M.2012.38.1) cites a composition by Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), while The Visitation 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. 62, pp. 250–56)
Provenance: Julio Enrique Domingo López (d. 2013), Alcobendas, Spain; bequested as the López y Manzano Collection to the city of Alcobendas, 2013; Abalarte Subastas, Madrid, February 10–12, 2016, lot 312; Carteia Fine Arts, Madrid, 2016; LACMA, 2016.
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.
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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