Portrait of Doña María Luisa Gonzaga Foncerrada y Labarrieta

José María Vázquez was the most outstanding student of Rafael Ximeno y Planes, and also a tenured painting teacher in the San Carlos Academy and the introducer of the Neoclassical style to New Spain. Young María Luisa was portrayed wearing civilian clothes at the age of 18, before entering the Enseñanza Convent, where she was known as Sister Mary of the Sacred Hearts. Her adoption of the monastic life was signaled by her having cut her hair to the minimum length, which was essential in order to wear the coif and veil once she had taken her vows and, moreover, denoted humility and renunciation of the worldly life. The future nun is wearing a lace coif adorned with silk flowers on her head, as a final frivolous touch of adornment. As the daughter of a powerful and prosperous family from Michoacán, the young girl is dressed in the latest fashion, in an elegant, high-wasted, empirestyle dress made out of dark brown satin embroidered with floral motifs. The use of threequarter- length sleeves instead of short ones, and the fichu made of thin white fabric covering her bosom constitute a show of modesty on the part of a budding novice. In keeping with this style, her jewelry is austere, consisting of a string of pearls with a pumpkin-shaped pearl pendant attached to an enameled housing, and earrings in the same form. The young woman is holding a fan, which alludes to her unmarried status, and a missal symbolizing her religious vocation. The present piece broke with the conventions of the official neo-Hispanic portrait, ushering in the Neoclassical style. This work passed to the MUNAL from the San Diego Viceregal Painting Gallery in the year 2000.