Virgin of Sorrows with Saint John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene (nun's badge)

Virgin of Sorrows with Saint John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene (nun's badge)

circa 1700
Artist
unknown artist
Country
Mexico
Object
Nun's Badge
Medium
Paint and embroidery on silk
Accession Number
2013.360
Credit Line
Gift of the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer

Unknown artist, Virgin of Sorrows with Saint John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene (Nun’s Badge), about 1700. Paint and embroidery on silk; 6⅜ in. dia. Gift of the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer, 2013.360.

Dimensions
diameter: 6 3/8 in, 16.1925 cm
Department
Mayer Center, Latin American Art
Collection
Latin American Art

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 object is particularly unusual in that it is embroidered in silk thread and may originally have been a medallion on a church vestment before being re-purposed as a nun’s badge. Notably, the faces and hands of the figures have all been painted, suggesting the presence of more than one artist in the creation of this object.

Somewhat unusually, the escudo shows a scene of mourning before the cross. At center sits the Virgin, in a posture evoking the Virgin of Sorrows, her hands clasped and her eyes cast mournfully upward. At right weeps Mary Magdalene and at left is St. John the Evangelist, both of whom were present at the Crucifixion.

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

Known Provenance
Gifted 25 November 2013 by Frederick and Jan Mayer 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.
Exhibition History
  • "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