Unknown artist, Virgin and Child (Nun's Badge), 1600s. Oil paint and gold leaf on copper with inlaid wood frame with tortoiseshell back; 5½ in. dia. Gift of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Denver, Colorado, 2005.92.

diameter: 5 1/2 in, 13.9700 cm

Mayer Center, Latin American Art

Latin American Art

This object is currently on view

Nun’s badges (escudos) are unique to Mexico.  Invented there in the seventeenth century, they were worn at the throat by Conceptionist and Jeronymite nuns over the habits of their respective orders. Representing images of the Virgin and saints significant to the order and/or the individual nun, they were usually painted on round or oval sheets of copper and framed in tortoiseshell or wood. Many of the most famous artists in Mexico painted nun’s badges and some are signed by the artists.
--Donna Pierce, 2015

Gifted 2 November 2005 by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Denver, CO, to the Denver Art Museum. Provenance research is on-going at the Denver Art Museum. Please e-mail provenance@denverartmuseum.org, if you have questions, or if you have additional information to share with us.