Novohispana School, possibly Miguel Cabrera; Last third of the XVIII century.

Novohispana School, possibly MIGUEL CABRERA (Oaxaca, Mexico, 1695- Mexico City, 1768); Last third of the XVIII century.
"Virgin of the Angels with the Trinity, St. Joseph and St. John of Nepomuk".
Oil on copper.
Preserves frame of the eighteenth century.
Measurements: 44.5 x 32 cm; 68 x 54 cm (frame).
The work presents one of the most widespread iconographies of viceregal art: the representation of the Virgin Mary crowned and enthroned on clouds, elevated in a celestial space and surrounded by angels and saints who contemplate and venerate her. The composition underlines her condition of Queen of Heaven, emphasized by the ascending disposition of the figures and by the luminous atmosphere that envelops the scene. In the lower part of the canvas there is an inscription that probably reads "N. S. of the Angels"-.
From the formal and technical point of view, the painting can be linked to the artistic circle of Miguel Cabrera, one of the capital figures of the novo-Hispanic baroque painting. Born in Tlalixtac, Oaxaca, Cabrera developed a fundamentally religious production, in which the representation of the Virgin stood out, especially under the invocation of Guadalupe. His treatise Maravilla americana y conjunto de raras maravillas observadas con la dirección de las reglas del arte de la pintura (1756) evidences not only his technical skill, but also his theoretical will to legitimize the Novo-Hispanic pictorial tradition within the academic canons.
The softness in the modeling of the faces, the delicacy in the transition of lights and shadows and the chromatic richness, characteristics perceptible in this work, refer to the ways of doing of Cabrera's environment. Likewise, the preference for small and medium formats, executed both on canvas and copper, was one of the hallmarks of his production and that of his workshop.
Cabrera's relevance in the artistic panorama of New Spain was remarkable. He held the position of chamber painter to Archbishop José Manuel Rubio y Salinas and in 1753 he founded the first painting academy in Mexico, a key institution for the professionalization of the profession in the viceroyalty. Unlike the frequent perception in peninsular Spain, where New Spain painting used to be underestimated, many of his works, or works from his workshop, were sent to the metropolis, acquired by prominent families linked to America, such as the Marquises of Altamira, the Gálvez and Mayorga families. Today, Cabrera's production is preserved in some of the main temples in Mexico and in institutions such as the Museo del Virreinato in Tepozotlán, the Museo de América in Madrid or the Museo Nacional de las Intervenciones in Coyoacán, among others. In this context, the analyzed work is coherently inserted within this devotional and aesthetic tradition, revealing the imprint of a refined pictorial language that consolidated the prestige of the novo-Hispanic baroque.