Francisco Martínez, Virgin of Guadalupe with Saints (Nun's Badge), 1700s. Oil and gold leaf on copper with glass and tortoise-shell frame; 8⅜ in. dia. Gift of the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer, 2013.401.

diameter: 8 3/8 in, 21.2725 cm; depth: 1 in, 2.5400 cm

signed by artist in gold at lower left

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. Many of the most famous artists in Mexico painted nun’s badges, and some are signed, including this example signed in gold in the lower left by Francisco Martínez (active 1718–1758).

This badge shows the Virgin of Guadalupe flanked by Saints John Nepomuk and Barbara at left and Justus and Margaret of Cortona at right. Although it does not have its original frame, it is surrounded by a painted border of Franciscan rope and striped gold leaf decorations interspersed with cherubs.

– 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.

• "Painting a New World: Mexican Art and Life, 1521-1821," Denver Art Museum and Meadows Museum, Dallas, TX, 2004 (This object was in the exhibit but not in the catalog)
• "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