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Collections

Attributed to Miguel Cabrera
Nun’s Badge with the Virgin of the Apocalypse and Saints (Medallón de monja con la Virgen de la Apocalipsis y santos)circa 1760

Not on view
Circular oil painting, tondo format with gold rim, depicting a crowned woman in blue holding an infant, surrounded by angels above and haloed saints below
Oil painting, oval format with gilded edge, depicting a bearded male figure in white vestments with blue and red chevron-patterned cope, holding a palm frond and cross, one hand raised, surrounded by a halo and radiating white rays with star-like points; a second robed figure visible at upper right holding a rosary.
Artist or Maker
Attributed to Miguel Cabrera
Mexico, circa 1710-1768
Title
Nun’s Badge with the Virgin of the Apocalypse and Saints (Medallón de monja con la Virgen de la Apocalipsis y santos)
Date Made
circa 1760
Medium
Oil on copper
Dimensions
Diameter: 7 in. (17.8 cm)
Credit Line
Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number
M.2018.177.2
Classification
Paintings
Collecting Area
Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes

In Mexico, badges were a central ornament of a nun’s habit, especially on her day of profession. The most common themes are the Immaculate Conception and the Annunciation; the perimeter is typically crowded with a choir of saints, which includes the most important devotions for the order and cults of particular interest to the owner. Worn close to the body, badges often carried political messages and were painted by the best artists of the day.

In this badge, Saint John of Nepomuck appears holding the attribute of his tongue; he appears standing at the feet of the Virgin alongside the founders of other important orders in New Spain: Saint Francis (carrying the Virgin), Saint Augustine (offering a flaming heart), Saint Philip Neri (next to a book and biretta), and Saint Ignatius of Loyola (holding a book inscribed “Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam” [For the greater glory of God], the Latin motto of the Society of Jesus). The badge is conceived as a veritable sacra conversazione (sacred conversation) among the orders, symbolizing their support of the Jesuits at the dawn of their expulsion (1767).


From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entry by Ilona Katzew in the accompanying publication, cat. no. 21, pp. 118–24)

Provenance
Private collection, New York; David Smernoff Fine Art, New Haven, Connecticut, 2010s; Osuna Art & Antiques Ltd. (Ramón Osuna), Washington, DC, 2010s; Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 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. 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