Altarpiece of the Virgin of Guadalupe with Saint John the Baptist, Fray Juan de Zumárraga and Juan Diego

This work has recourse to visual rhetoric to depict one of the most developed themes in neo-Hispanic worship - the relationship between the Virgin and those charged with divulging her mysteries. Thus, the figure of Mary of Guadalupe is shown in the corner of an altarpiece, inside a canopy whose curtains are held aside by two angels. Lower down there is a vaulted niche containing a sculpture of Saint John the Baptist, flanked by Fray Juan de Zumárraga, the first Bishop of México, and the Virgin's emissary, Juan Diego, both of whom are staring, lost in contemplation, at the figure of the Virgin. It is the figure of John the Baptist that gives life to the story, since it was he who, speaking from the womb of Isabel when Mary was visiting the latter, first announced the Incarnation of the Savior, thus acknowledging Mary to be the Mother of God. Juan Diego plays a similar role, being the first to recognize the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe as the Mother of God and to express Her wishes, as well as playing a key part in the miraculous imprinting of the Virgin's image on his maguey-fiber cloak. For his part, as the recipient of the message carried by Juan Diego and the spreader of the worship of the Mother of God manifested as the Virgin of Guadalupe, he became, along with Juan Diego, the propagator of the Marian mysteries, so that the two aforementioned figures were likened, in New Spain, to Saint John the Baptist, with whom they are also linked by their names. The painstaking depiction and excellent workmanship of this piece are worthy of comment. This painting entered the, MUNAL as part of its founding endowment in 1982.