Christ Teaching in the Temple
- unknown artist
Unknown artist, Christ Teaching in the Temple, 1600s. Oil paint with shell inlay on wood panel; 11¼ × 14½ in. Gift of Robert J. Stroessner, 1991.1160.
During the colonial period in Mexico, a unique art form known as enconchado was invented and may be related to both pre-Hispanic shell mosaic and Asian shell inlay traditions. Enconchado panels and objects were inset with pieces of mother-of-pearl and then painted with oil paints thinned to a translucence, to allow the shimmer of the nacre to shine through. Various workshops in Mexico produced these stunning and unusual works of art.
This enconchado piece shows Christ in the Temple, an episode recorded in the gospel of Luke (2:41–52) in which the young Jesus impressed the temple elders with his advanced learning. It likely derives from a European engraving of the scene, though the source has yet to be identified.
– Donna Pierce, 2015; revised by Kathryn Santner, Frederick and Jan Mayer Fellow of Spanish Colonial Art, 2023