Lamentation Over the Dead Christ

Lamentation Over the Dead Christ

about 1760
Artist
Juan Patricio Morlete y Ruiz, Mexican, 1713-1772?
Born: Mexico
Work Locations: Mexico
Country
Mexico
Object
painting
Medium
Oil paint on copper
Accession Number
2013.305
Credit Line
Gift of the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer

Juan Patricio Morlete y Ruiz, Lamentation Over the Dead Christ, about 1760. Oil paint on copper; 21 × 16 in. Gift of the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer, 2013.305.

Dimensions
frame height: 29 in, 73.6600 cm; frame width: 23 1/2 in, 59.6900 cm; image height: 21 in, 53.3400 cm; image width: 16 in, 40.6400 cm; depth: 2.5 in, 6.3500 cm
Inscription
signature at Bottom Right Center
Department
Mayer Center, Latin American Art
Collection
Latin American Art

Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz is one of few Mexican colonial artists whose biography is known. Born in San Miguel de Allende in 1713 to a Spanish father and Indigenous mother, he was one of the many mestizo artists of colonial Mexico. He married in 1733, had eight children, and made his will in 1772 in Mexico City. He was a student in Mexico City of the great Baroque artist, José de Ibarra. Through his apprenticeship with Ibarra, Morlete Ruiz developed a mature idealism in his painting that helped set the stage for the Mexican neoclassicism that followed.

This painting of the Lamentation is reminiscent of Flemish painting from Rogier van der Weyden's famous Descent from the Cross. Although Morlete Ruiz takes inspiration from known models, his depiction of the sorrow of the individual figures is distinctive and poignant. The artist splays Christ’s prone body across the picture plane, inviting contemplation but also highlighting his artistic skill. Painted on copper, which lends a jewel-like glow to the work, the painting is a potent expression of pathos and sorrow.

– revised by Kathryn Santner, Frederick and Jan Mayer Fellow of Spanish Colonial Art, 2023

 

Known Provenance
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