Virgin of Guadalupe

Work by Juan de Villegas, which shows the traditional icon composed of the vision of Our Lady stepping onto the half moon, held by an angel, crowned and covered by a starry cloak, and surrounded by an aureole brilliant with light. In the corners of the canvas the four apparitions of the Virgin to the indian, Juan Diego, are portrayed on Tepeyac Mountain in accordance with tradition. In the two upper corners, accompanied by two angels, the indian witnesses the divine apparition that asks him to go to the bishop of Zumárraga to tell him what he has seen. He also tells the bishop to build a temple on that precise spot. The indifference of the prelate, and his desire to have more tangible proof than the simple word of the indian, causes a third apparition, represented in the lower left corner, with its subsequent commandment for Juan Diego to pick some roses, hide them in his blanket or cloak and show them to Zumárraga. This leads to the fourth and last apparition in the presence of the bishop and his companions, who are able to verify that it is not the flowers but the sacred image of the Virgin that appears on Juan Diego’s cloak. At the Virgin’s feet, an octagonal sign shows a small scene of an urban landscape, where the basilica of Guadalupe is being built, which allows us to date the piece to the early years of the 18th century, before the temple was completed and went on to open in 1709. The Virgin of Guadalupe was not declared patron saint of New Spain until 1745, even though she had had this recognition within the viceroyalty long before. First by the indigenous people, one of whom had the privilege of witnessing an apparition, and rapidly by the creoles. They considered the text “Non fecit taliter omni nationi", which Benedict XIV had written to accompany the image, as public acknowledgement from the highest authority in the world of Catholicism that New Spain was a land of marvels, where events took place that didn’t happen in other parts of the world.