Rendering of a Mulatta (Diceño de Mulata)
- Manuel de Arellano, Mexican, c. 1691 - 1722
- Work Locations: Mexico City, Mexico
- Attributed to
Manuel de Arellano (attributed to), Rendering of a Mulatta (Diceño de Mulata), 1711. Oil paint on canvas; 39½ × 29⅛ in. Gift of Frederick and Jan Mayer, 2024.425. Photograph courtesy of the Denver Art Museum.
The translation of the inscription on this painting reads, “Rendering of a Mulatta, Daughter of a Black and a Spaniard in Mexico City, Capital of America on 22 August 1711.” The woman wears a lace-edged head scarf, Mexican shawl (rebozo), and a distinctive overblouse (manga) worn exclusively by women of African descent. Despite holding a lower social standing, this woman wears elaborate jewelry including a six-strand pearl choker, pearl earrings, and multiple coral rings.
Pearls were harvested during the colonial period at numerous locations in the Atlantic between Florida and Venezuela, and in the Pacific between California and Ecuador, first by Indigenous divers who were later replaced with enslaved Afrodescendants. Coral was also abundant in the New World and was harvested on both coasts. Women of all social classes wore pearl and coral jewelry in colonial Latin America, as seen in this example.
This painting is signed "Arellano" and is attributed to Manuel de Arellano who was active from around 1691 until at least 1722. He is identified in documents as a "Master Painter" and contracted apprentices in 1703 and 1717. Several members of the Arellano family were active in Mexico as painters during the transition from the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries. Although most of their signed works bear only the surname "Arellano," two painters have been identified from documents: Antonio, the father, and Manuel, his son. In addition, several paintings are signed "the mute Arellano," and a certain José de Arellano, whom some scholars have conjectured may belong to the family dynasty, has yet to be documented in connection with any known painting. The relationship of these latter to Antonio and Manuel is still unclear. The Denver Art Museum has paintings by all four members of the Arellano family of painters in the Spanish Colonial collection. The DAM is the only institution in the United States and one of only a few in the world to have the Arellano workshop fully represented.
--Donna Pierce, 2015
- "Painting a New World: Mexican Art and Life 1521–1821"—Denver Art Museum, 4/3/2004 - 7/25/2004
- "Tesoros/Treasures/Tesouros: The Arts in Latin America, 1492–1820"—Philadelphia Museum of Art, 9/20/2006 - 12/31/2006
- "Glitterati: Portraits and Jewelry from Colonial Latin America"—Denver Art Museum, 12/7/2014 - 11/19/2017
- "Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici"—Fomento Cultural Citibanamex, Mexico City, 7/29/2017 - 10/15/2017
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, 4/24/2018 - 7/22/2018
- “ReVision: Art in the Americas” — Denver Art Museum, 10/24/2021 – 7/17/2022
- "ReVision: Art in the Americas"—Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN, 7/1/2023 - 9/17/2023
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