Immaculate Conception
- José María Montes de Oca, Mexican, 1772 - c.1825
- Active Dates: 1801-1806
José María Montes de Oca, Immaculate Conception, 1801-1806. Engraving; 3¾ × 1¾ in. Gift of the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer, 2013.368.
José María Montes de Oca studied engraving at the Academy of San Carlos with Jerónimo Antonio Gil and was given a twelve-year pension at the Royal Mint in Mexico City. Much of his training under Gil was concerned with medal engraving, but after Montes left the Mint, he shifted his attention to producing copperplate engravings for sale from his workshop on the calle del Bautisterio de Santa Catarina Martir. Among his major productions was a book on the life of Saint Philip (Felipe) de Jesús which included thirty engravings, which is also in the museum’s collection in two versions (2013.347 and 2013.369).
This engraving by Montes de Oca shows a variation of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception known as the Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles. According to legend, the original canvas image of the Virgin was found miraculously intact after a flood that struck Mexico City. The work was moved to a small hermitage in the barrio of Coatlán and copied onto one of the structure’s adobe walls. Among her identifying features are the Virgin’s a round mandorla (a typically almond-shaped emanation of light behind holy figures) and the gloria of angels that surrounds her. A stone church dedicated to the advocation was eventually built in the late 1700s, and the Virgin’s is celebrated annually on August 2nd.
– Kathryn Santner, Frederick and Jan Mayer Fellow of Spanish Colonial Art, 2022
- Exhibited, 2007, Sangre de Cristo Arts Center, Pueblo, CO.
