Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

January 31, 1772
Artist
Miguel Jerónimo Zendejas, Mexican, 1723 - 1815
Born: Mexico
Work Locations: Mexico
Locale
Puebla, Mexico
Country
Mexico
Object
painting
Medium
Oil on canvas
Accession Number
2013.304
Credit Line
Gift of the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer

Miguel Jerónimo Zendejas, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 1772. Oil on canvas; 42 × 30 in. Gift of the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer, 2013.304.

Dimensions
frame height: 51 1/4 in, 130.1750 cm; frame width: 39 1/4 in, 99.6950 cm; frame depth: 2 in, 5.0800 cm; image height: 42 in, 106.6800 cm; image width: 30 in, 76.2000 cm
Inscription
Signature at Bottom Left Center, inscription at Bottom Right Center
Department
Mayer Center, Latin American Art
Collection
Latin American Art

The wealthy city of Puebla rivaled Mexico City during the colonial period as an artistic and cultural center. As a result, a thriving school of painting developed there with several familial dynasties of artists. Miguel Jerónimo Zendejas was one of Puebla’s most important painters in the 1700s. His father Lorenzo was a well-known printmaker in Puebla who traveled to Rome to study. Many of Miguel's paintings can be traced to engravings probably brought back from Europe by his father. According to art historian Manuel Toussaint, three of Miguel’s children also became painters.

This painting of the Virgin of Mount Carmel is inscribed with a dedication to the sergeant and soldiers of the 6th Army company under the command of Francisco Ruiz de Peña. The Virgin of Mount Carmel was the patron saint of the Carmelite order which has several convents in Puebla. She was also a favorite of the Franciscan order, the friars who missionized and administered the Puebla region.

In her role as intercessor between the faithful and God the Father, the Virgin was often represented in the Baroque era as youthful and accessible, a convention exemplified in the paintings of the Spanish artist, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Here the Virgin is depicted holding the Christ Child and wearing the Carmelite emblem on her chest. She and the child hold scapulars and the surrounding angels carry objects, such as a mirror and flowers, from the Songs of Solomon interpreted to symbolize the purity of the Virgin.

– Julie Wilson Frick, 2017; revised by Kathryn Santner, Frederick and Jan Mayer Fellow of Spanish Colonial Art, 2023

Known Provenance
Gifted 25 November 2013 by the Frederick and Jan Mayer Collection of 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.
Exhibition History
  • Exhibited 2005, "Patronato, Painting from Baroque Mexico: Selected Works from the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer," Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
  • "Collecting a New World: Spanish Colonial Art from the Jan and Frederick R. Mayer Collection," Apr 2-May 14, 2005, Lamont Gallery, Phillips Exeter Academy
  • "From Viceregal to Verancular: Painting in Colonial Mexico and New Mexico," Nov 17, 2006-Apr 29, 2007, Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, Santa Fe