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Collections

Attributed to Antonio de Torres
Nun’s Badge with the Immaculate Conception and Saints (Medallón de monja con la Inmaculada Concepción y santos)circa 1720

On view:
Geffen Galleries
Circular oil painting, tondo format, central female figure in gold-embroidered blue mantle rising above a crescent moon, surrounded by saints, angels, and cherubs
Oil painting detail showing a bearded man in ochre and green robes holding an infant with a golden radiant halo, against a light blue background with gilt highlights; a second male figure visible at lower right.
Oil painting, close-up of a woman in black and white religious habit gazing upward with hands raised, surrounded by cherub faces emerging from golden-tinged clouds above, fluid brushwork.
Oil painting detail, arched composition showing a white-robed figure reclining on clouds and extending one arm toward a flowering stem, with two additional figures visible below, rendered in soft, loose brushwork with pale gray, pink, and blue tones.
Artist or Maker
Attributed to Antonio de Torres
Mexico, 1667-1731
Title
Nun’s Badge with the Immaculate Conception and Saints (Medallón de monja con la Inmaculada Concepción y santos)
Date Made
circa 1720
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.2018.177.1
Classification
Paintings
Collecting Area
Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes

In Mexico, badges were a central ornament of a nun’s habit, especially on the day of her profession of vows. The most common themes were the Immaculate Conception and the Annunciation; the perimeter was typically crowded with a choir of saints, which included 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. Here, a cascade of figures encircles an image of the Immaculate Conception crowned by the Eucharist. On the left, in descending order, are Saints Michael, Francis of Assisi, Joseph—cradling the sleeping Christ Child—and Joachim. On the right are Saints Anthony, Gertrude (with a flaming heart), and Anne. At the feet of the Virgin is the famed sixteenth-century Spanish mystic Saint Teresa of Ávila.

Painted badges originated in Mexico in response to religious reforms introduced by the archbishop Francisco Manso y Zúñiga (r. 1629–35), who attempted to curtail the luxury and privilege of convent life. He forbade nuns to wear shields made of gold, precious stones, and enamel. Nuns circumvented this rule by commissioning shields painted on copper or parchment and set into frames made of tortoiseshell.

Ilona Katzew

2024

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. 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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