Novo-Hispanic school; second half of the 18th century.

Novo-Hispanic school; second half of the XVIII century.
"Guadalupe".
Oil on copper.
Measurements: 29,5 x 20,5 cm; 33 x 24,5 cm (frame).
This devotional copper represents the Virgin of Guadalupe immersed in a golden light highlighted by numerous rays emerging from her figure. She wears a starry blue mantle and a tunic underneath, standing on a lunar crescent held by an angel. She joins her hands in a prayerful attitude, bowing her head, her eyes open, and highlighted by a crown on her head. This "particular type of Immaculate" shows its Baroque influence in style and iconography, but already introduces some colors in its palette more related to the 18th century, although without varying to a great extent the previous models. The image is clearly the Virgin of Guadalupe. The iconography of Guadalupe acquired great richness and variety especially from the 17th century onwards. It is a Marian invocation of the Catholic Church, whose image has its main center of worship in the Basilica of Guadalupe, in the north of Mexico City. According to Mexican oral tradition, it is believed that the Virgin Mary appeared four times to Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin on the hill of Tepeyac. Juan Diego, in the last apparition of the Virgin, carried in his ayate some flowers that he cut on Tepeyac, according to the Virgin's order. He unfolded his ayate before Bishop Juan de Zumárraga, revealing the image of the Virgin Mary, dark and with mestizo features. The Mesoamerican peoples from remote times already venerated in the hill of Tepeyac a deity called Tonantzin, hence there is a certain syncretism with the assimilation of the message brought by the Virgin Mary. This event was known as the Miracle of the Roses, and was recorded in the "Nican Mopohua", a text presumably written by the Indian Antonio Valeriano.