Baltasar de Echave Ibía
The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria (El martirio de santa Catalina de Alejandría)1642

On view:

Geffen Galleries, floor 2

Vertical oil painting depicting a heavenly figure surrounded by angels in radiant clouds above a crowded earthly scene of figures in Roman armor collapsing around wooden crosses

Oil painting of a chaotic battle scene; a central male figure in green tunic and white loincloth lunges forward gripping a large shield, surrounded by fallen and cowering figures, with flames, soldiers, and a distant cityscape in the background; detailed figures rendered with fine brushwork.

Oil painting with dramatic chiaroscuro lighting; a winged angel descends toward a kneeling woman in white and ochre drapery who gazes upward with arms raised; flames and onlooking figures fill the dark background; prostrate figures in the foreground.

Oil painting of a bearded male figure in pale robes seated on clouds, holding a crown and palm frond, surrounded by cherubs and angels against a luminous radiant background.

Oil painting of a tumultuous battle scene under a stormy, rain-swept sky; armored figures and soldiers crowd the foreground amid scattered banners and spears, with a hilltop fortress and buildings receding into the dark, turbulent background; loose, animated brushwork throughout.

Artist or Maker: Baltasar de Echave Ibía
Mexico, circa 1595-1644
Title: The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria (El martirio de santa Catalina de Alejandría)
Date Made: 1642
Medium: Oil on copper
Dimensions: Unframed: 33 7/16 × 25 3/8 in. (85 × 64.5 cm); framed: 44 3/4 × 37 × 4 in. (113.67 × 93.98 × 10.16 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number: M.2018.178
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: This painting depicts a key episode in the life of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. In the early fourth century, she was condemned to death on a spiked breaking wheel after defying the pagan Roman emperor Maxentius. Because of her learned reputation, Catherine was named patron saint of Mexico’s university in the late 1500s, and her willingness to adopt Christianity made her a religious model. Baltasar de Echave Ibía’s spirited composition, with fiery lightning bolts darting from the sky, was considered a novelty in its day.

Echave Ibía descended from a prominent dynasty of Spanish artists active in Mexico in the seventeenth century. Despite some key differences, this multifigure composition bears a striking resemblance to a painting of the same subject by the Flemish artist Frans Francken II (1581–1642; M.2009.95), a member of a large family of artists actively engaged in the picture trade in Antwerp, whose paintings were exported by the thousands to Spain and its American domains.

Ilona Katzew

2024
Provenance: Galerías La Granja, Mexico City; Manuel Santaella, Caracas, c. 1943; by inheritance to his daughter Cristina Santaella Sequeira, Caracas; by inheritance to her son José Manuel Sequeira Santaella, Caracas; Manuel Piñanes, Madrid, 2018; LACMA, 2018.
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

Baltasar de Echave Ibía
The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria (El martirio de santa Catalina de Alejandría)1642

On view:

Geffen Galleries, floor 2

Artist or Maker: Baltasar de Echave Ibía
Mexico, circa 1595-1644
Title: The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria (El martirio de santa Catalina de Alejandría)
Date Made: 1642
Medium: Oil on copper
Dimensions: Unframed: 33 7/16 × 25 3/8 in. (85 × 64.5 cm); framed: 44 3/4 × 37 × 4 in. (113.67 × 93.98 × 10.16 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number: M.2018.178
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: This painting depicts a key episode in the life of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. In the early fourth century, she was condemned to death on a spiked breaking wheel after defying the pagan Roman emperor Maxentius. Because of her learned reputation, Catherine was named patron saint of Mexico’s university in the late 1500s, and her willingness to adopt Christianity made her a religious model. Baltasar de Echave Ibía’s spirited composition, with fiery lightning bolts darting from the sky, was considered a novelty in its day.

Echave Ibía descended from a prominent dynasty of Spanish artists active in Mexico in the seventeenth century. Despite some key differences, this multifigure composition bears a striking resemblance to a painting of the same subject by the Flemish artist Frans Francken II (1581–1642; M.2009.95), a member of a large family of artists actively engaged in the picture trade in Antwerp, whose paintings were exported by the thousands to Spain and its American domains.

Ilona Katzew

2024
Provenance: Galerías La Granja, Mexico City; Manuel Santaella, Caracas, c. 1943; by inheritance to his daughter Cristina Santaella Sequeira, Caracas; by inheritance to her son José Manuel Sequeira Santaella, Caracas; Manuel Piñanes, Madrid, 2018; LACMA, 2018.
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