Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz
Porus in Battle (La batalla de Poro)circa 1767

Not on view

Horizontal oil painting of a large battle scene with war elephants, mounted soldiers in red cloaks, and fallen figures, with a decorative cartouche held by cherubs at the bottom center

Oil painting of a crowded battle scene with soldiers in ancient armor, a central commander in orange cloak gesturing amid fallen horses, an elephant at lower left, tents and palm trees in the background under a pale sky.

Oil painting detail of a battle scene; a bare-chested male figure grapples with an armored figure amid fallen and rearing horses, rendered in warm earth tones with smooth Baroque brushwork.

Oil painting detail showing two putti flanking an ornate gilded cartouche with a blue field containing a Latin inscription; left putto holds a spear and quiver of arrows, right putto holds a shield and lance; figures in clouds above.

Oil painting of a battle scene; in the foreground, an armored figure in blue and yellow subdues a fallen bare-chested man with a raised sword, while soldiers bearing shields, spears, and banners crowd the middle ground beneath a distant encampment.

Artist or Maker: Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz
Mexico, 1713-1772
Title: Porus in Battle (La batalla de Poro)
Date Made: circa 1767
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Unframed: 33 3/8 × 49 7/8 in. (84.8 × 126.7 cm); framed: 42 3/4 × 59 1/4 × 4 in. (108.59 × 150.5 × 10.16 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number: M.2021.15
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: In 1767 Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz created two sets of paintings of the Battles of Alexander, which he modeled after French academic works by Charles Le Brun (1619–1690). Recognizing the propaganda value of this metaphor for the reign of Louis XIV (r. 1643–1715), the state commissioned prints after the original compositions, which were enormously popular, including in New Spain.

Morlete Ruiz adhered closely to the source material, but he added the putti on a plinth jutting from a stone ledge. This clever demarcation of space implies that what lies beyond is the product of a double form of artifice—that of the original European painting that served as a model (via a print), which is here dexterously copied by a New Spanish master and staged for display.

From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entry by Ilona Katzew in the accompanying publication, cat. no. 53, pp. 232–37)
Provenance: Rafael Cabello de Alba (1925–2010), Madrid; Manuel Garzón Muñoz, Madrid, c. 1960s; Filippo Ziti and Cesare Zaghini, Madrid, 2001; Christie’s, New York, January 2021; LACMA, 2021.
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. 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 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. 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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