Unknown artist, The Immaculate Conception with Saint Anthony of Padua and Saint Francis of Assisi (Nun’s Badge), 1650-1700. Colored pencil and gouache on vellum with a tortoise shell, mother of pearl and brass frame; 4⅝ in. dia. Gift of the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer, 2013.362.

diameter: 4 5/8 in, 11.7475 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 1600s, they were worn at the throat by Conceptionist and Hieronymite nuns over the habits of their respective orders. Depicting 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. This example is painted on vellum (animal skin). While this work is anonymous, many of the most famous artists in Mexico painted nun’s badges, and some are signed.

This delicate work shows the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception flanked by the Franciscan saints Francis of Assisi, at left, and Anthony of Padua, at right, holding the Christ Child. Surrounding her are a few of her attributes from the Litany of Loreto, among them the spotless mirror, cypress, and fountain.

– Donna Pierce, 2015; revised by Kathryn Santner, Frederick and Jan Mayer Fellow of Spanish Colonial Art, 2023

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.

• "Heaven and Earth: The Jan and Frederick Mayer Collection of Spanish Colonial Art from the Denver Art Museum, Jun 16-Oct 8, 2006, Museo de las Americas, Denver
• "From Viceregal to Verancular: Painting in Colonial Mexico and New Mexico," Nov 17, 2006-Apr 29, 2007, Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, Santa Fe