Miguel Cabrera was the most popular artist of his day and by the time he died he had almost reached mythic proportions so he is the equivalent of a Western European art star sort of like a Michelangelo or Leonardo. We know he had close connections with the Jesuits but he did paint especially for the Collegia de Guadalupe and you'll see why in just a moment. His style is exquisite, combining beautiful draftsmanship.
Now, draftsmanship is how we refer to the way that an artist draws. So they have to draw before they paint. He has a beautiful, refined atmosphere, and he was active then in the second half of the 18th century. Again, he's one of a select group of painters who was able to go and... sit in front of Juan Diego's cloak and paint from the original Virgin of Guadalupe and as a result of that experience he wrote a book that you see here underneath his portrait called the Maravilla America, so the American miracle published in 1756 and it's a kind of an interesting blend of enlightenment science of faith and devotion So he has an important part in that most important image He is going to do a series of Costa paintings that we're going to talk about very shortly.
And we're going to begin by taking a look at one of his religious commissions. Keep in mind that he is from Oaxaca and he is from Zapotec. That is his background.
So this is a pretty unusual way of showing the image of Christ. Something we're not used to, but something that was very typical during the colonial period. The image is referred to as the divine spouse and this was made to go inside a convent. When a young woman joins the convent life, she takes a vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience and she is the bride of Christ. So when she dies and she goes to heaven, she gets to live with the divine spouse.
So this is the kind of image that would be commissioned, usually paid for by non-church people. maybe the family members of one of the sisters who lived in the convent, and this would be something that would probably be in their refectory or dining hall. Every little flower that you see has a significance.
It has a meaning. This is very typical. It carries over from Renaissance Europe. Flowers mean something.
The color means something. There is a circle of angels, of course, surrounding Christ here as he reclines. And look at his gaze.
He's looking directly at us, the viewer, which would have been the goal of the nuns who were using this image for contemplation. Over in the right, you see the little reference to the Lamb, so the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And then a little text panel in the corner.
that helps fill in the rest of the story. The colors in this are absolutely amazing. This was in Los Angeles recently and it is as vivid and bright turquoise and red-pink that you can imagine.
So it's in really excellent condition. So Juan Diego is of course a favorite subject matter as part of the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe and his depiction of Juan Diego is very different than what we saw in Arellano in those little roundels that centered around. This is about a three foot by four foot oil on canvas. We're at 1755, and this was created for the chapter house of the Basilica de Guadalupe. So what you see here is Juan Diego being drawn by birdsong and the rainbow to the hill of Tepeyac.
And so this is sort of like before everything is happening here. You know, we are going to reach a unified image of the Virgin of Guadalupe by this time. This is how we're doing it. She's going to have on the blue cloak with the stars, a crown. She's going to be standing on a crescent moon and surrounded in a mandorla that's sort of glowing and golden.
Look at how he's standing. We refer to that as contrapposto weight shift. He has a lot of movement. He's not standing stiff and straight like an Egyptian figure. His knees are bent.
His hips are altered. His shoulders are altered. and you can see that he is moving forward. He's briskly walking across the mountain of Tepeyac.
His gaze is not at us, but it is direct. It's meaningful. It sort of shows where he is going.
And this is a good one to compare to other images of Juan Diego. This one, he looks like a... I know he looks a little bit cartoonish in the Arellano version and here he looks like a real person.
Here's a monogram of Christ directly over his head as well. So it's time to dive in to this very strange and wonderful form of art known as the Costa painting. Costa paintings are something that are unique to colonial Mexico. And the bottom line is that Costa paintings are racial profiling. If you think about who was the minority in colonial Spain, it would have been peninsulares.
It would have been people from Spain. And if you think about the fact that they were completely surrounded by indigenous and mestizaje, people of mixed heritage, they would have been a nervous bunch. So... For a combination of reasons, this form of painting develops that's almost like a scientific tool. And it always shows 16 squares, sometimes 16 individual oil paintings, or sometimes 16 squares on one painting.
And they're always the same, with the most pure blood Spaniards at the top, moving back and forth. And as you go down through the squares, people are more and more mixed. They have less and less wealth so by the time you get down here These are the poorest of the poor so again highly offensive in Concept okay, so this is a helpful little chart to help you understand and also to get it Yeah, wrap your brain around the terminology so a peninsula ray is somebody who is born in Spain They are a hundred percent Spanish blood okay a criollo is usually someone who is of Spanish blood but born in Mexico.
And then after that you start adding in different ethnic groups. African folks, people of varying types of indigenous background. And they give these people these horrible names.
And in the Costa paintings they will be shown in a daily life scenario typical of their station in the community. So when you look at number one, okay, the result of a marriage between a Spaniard and an Indigenous woman is a mestiza. So you can see this is an elegantly dressed man, a beautifully dressed woman, but who is still hanging on to part of her Indigenous attire, and there is their little daughter.
So up at the top of the food chain, you've got this kind of an elegant scenario. People beautifully dressed, loving families, etc., etc. And as you get farther down the line, things become more grim, if you will.
So here we've got a mixed family, and it looks like this is not as wealthy a scenario. Okay, and so these Acosta paintings were created by artists of all different skill level. Some like Cabrera, the finest painters in the day, and some like what you see here, which is almost like a little folk painting. Many of these were sent back to Spain as proof of the progress that the Spanish were making in air quotes, taking over the indigenous population, which of course was a huge lie, but that's nothing that the King of Spain is going to be aware of.
So let's take a look then at Cabrera's set. This is from a set of 16 full-size oil paintings. So there's number one and here's number 16. But as you look at this you say well gosh lady I know you're not good in math but I only see 14. Well that's for a good reason and we're going to get to that in just a minute.
You notice that they have different frames on them. That's because they are no longer housed together. These paintings are spread out all over the world and they were brought together for this exhibition And the two that are missing are a great part of the story. So about four years ago, there was a miraculous announcement that one of the 16 had been found. So they had 14 of Cabrera's series.
Two were missing. They found one. This was rolled up and stored underneath the couch of an attorney from San Francisco. And her father had given her the painting and said, this is important, you should look into it someday.
Well, she was busy with her life and for like 25 years this painting sat rolled up underneath her couch and when she retired She decided to investigate. When I say rolled up, I literally mean rolled up. Look at this wooden bar This is the only one of the series that is in its original mounting, okay, because the idea was they were painted on canvas and rolled up and put into wooden cases and then this set was sent back to Spain. So this somehow got from Spain to San Francisco and the painting ended up at LACMA and it is now part of the permanent collection at LACMA. And I have to tell you the day that this was on the front page of Los Angeles Times I thought my phone was going to explode.
So this is the Español y Morisca. and their child is an alabina. So now you need to not translate that as albino, the genetic condition that we refer to today.
It means to someone who is fair skin. So as this whole scenario went down, and there was this publicity in the Times, Elena Katsu, who is the colonial painting specialist at LACMA, got this letter in the mail. No postmark, no name. Dear Ms. Katsu, you should know that I am well and living less than two miles from LACMA.
I have been in the same family for 30 years, although I do not know how I was acquired. So the writer of this letter is pretending that she is the little girl in the painting that I'm going to show you in just a moment. Enclosed with this letters are some pictures of me so that you know what I look like for historical purposes. My owner has enjoyed seeing and the one I just showed you a moment ago, number six, and I am pleased that we are now all accounted for despite the diaspora.
If you ever gather a reunion of all my siblings, she means the other 15 paintings, I would welcome the opportunity to be on display for a limited period of time. I am not lost, I just do not wish to be found. With great appreciation for your work as a Costa scholar, so that's referring to Dr. Katsu. de Español y Castiza Española o numero tres, and proud of my mixed blood despite being called Española. And then she signs her name.
Okay, so what the heck? And here it is. So this is from a photograph that whoever wrote that letter, it was inside that envelope and they just fell out on her desk. Guess what?
We still don't know where this is. Even after all the publicity, whoever retains this painting does not wish it to be on a part of the public display and that won't last forever. You know people who do this kind of stuff they've got time on their hands right so I think we'll see it sooner than later most definitely. I want to introduce you to the most important woman of the 17th century, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.
So Malinche is the most important woman of the 16th century. Sor Juana Ines is the most important woman of the 17th century. Her story is remarkable and you're like well who the heck is she?
Well if I show you this will you recognize her from seeing her on the peso there? That is who you see on on the Mexican 200 peso. So Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz was a mixed blood Mestiza and she was a child prodigy. She taught herself how to read when she was three.
She was able to read Greek and Latin by the time she was six. Her grandfather had a library and she would take a book from the library and hide it underneath her skirt and then go and slip into their family chapel to read. She ended up working in the court of the Viceroy. She was the tutor to the daughter of the Viorena and she was well written in science and mathematics and astronomy. She wrote poetry.
She wrote religious literature as well. And one of the problems was that the world was not ready and the Catholic Church was really not ready for a female to have to have such a loud voice. and to have such controversial ideas.
So she joined the convent life and she became part of the Hieronymite Order and she lived out good chunk of her life in their convent which today is right in the FA in the heart of Mexico City she was long dead by the time this image was created but there were a few early prints of Sor Juana to try and get the drift of what she looked like so here Sor Juana is seated and unlike the other women both secular and divine she is looking directly at us so her gaze is directly at us the viewer she's seated in her study okay One of the things she liked about the Iranomite order is that she was allowed to bring her books with her and to continue her writing and her research. And that's what you see going on behind her there. Up at the top is scientific equipment. We can actually read the titles of the book bindings here.
We can read what's in her lap so it's an important part of her story. Notice under her neck is oil painting. This is an oil painting on copper and it's called a nun's shield or an escudo and this would be a gift to the nun when she joined the church.
So she's sort of like walking around with a big copper plate banging on her chest. Probably didn't wear it every day but probably wore it for worship and on special occasions. You see her rosary there interlaced between her fingers.
There's a lot written about Sor Juana. And if you're interested in some text information, I can get it to you. There was a series on Netflix called Juana Ines, which it's not 100% historically, excuse me, historically accurate. But boys, it sure is a good story and it's worth watching. One of the fascinating forms of art that is unique to colonial Mexico is the folding screen known as a biombo.
One thing you don't think about is how much influence the Asian region had on Mexico, both Japan and China. This is due in part to the Manila Galleon, the Portuguese ships that traveled from Asia to the colonial Mexico, bringing goods with them. All right, so back in Japan, there is a standing, folding wooden screen called a biobo, and those were imported and the Mexican colonial elites loved to have them and over time then they became known as biombo and every major elite house would have one as a room divider and often then they're going to get decorated in a style now that is wonderful and colonial so this is Cabrera's folding screen now this is a big guy this is you know this is like asking uh asking Michelangelo to paint a piece of furniture for you, right? And so this is the finest artist of the day creating this beautiful folding screen. Please take the time to listen to the link that's provided for you.
They have actually recorded and composed the music that appears here on the sheet music in front of that particular artisan.