The Precious Blood of Christ, 18th c. Miguel Cabrera.
Museo Nacional del Virreinato. Tepotzotlán, Mexico.

In the cities of New Spain, Miguel Cabrera (1695?-1768) painted some of the most desired and famous works of art in the 18th century. His output was prodigious, the result of a well-staffed workshop where apprentices would do everything from preparing the canvas to painting the work, save for the final touches added by the master. Thus, the paintings attributed to (and sometimes signed by) Cabrera are notoriously uneven. But at his finest, Cabrera’s brushwork and sense of color are stunningly beautiful, and the psychological insight of his portraits acute. One skill that appealed immensely to his patrons was Cabrera’s mastery of the baroque “environment”: cycles of paintings, integrated with retablos, that filled 18th-century churches. This is no better seen than in the church of San Francisco Javier, the Jesuit monastery in Tepotzótlan, where the decorative cycle remains intact, including a Cabrera retablo and paintings. This painting is one of two works set at the church entrance. Viewers of the large painting find themselves at the eye level of the anguished souls in the chaos of Purgatory; above, the composition becomes harmonious around the figure of Jesus Christ. This figure, spouting blood from its wounds, is meant as an allegory of Christ as the fountain of salvation.

Some scholars have argued that Cabrera, who was the adoptive son of a Spaniard from Oaxaca, was mestizo, and this idea, if true, sets him apart from most of the other renowned painters of his generation, who were Creoles. Being a mestizo would have excluded him from guild membership and curtailed his ability to run a workshop and compete for prestigious commissions, yet Cabrera’s career seems to have suffered no such limitations. No matter what his birthright, Cabrera displayed the conventional Creole prejudices of his day. When he and other leading Mexico City painters attempted founding an art academy in 1753, they decreed that only artists of Spanish descent were welcome as students, and those of “color quebrado” (dark skin) were barred.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carrillo y Gariel, Abelardo. 1966. El pintor Miguel Cabrera. Mexico City: INAH.

Martí Cotarela, Monica and Dolores Dahlhaus. 1999. Miguel Cabrera: Un pintor de su tiempo. Mexico: Circulo de Arte.

Toussaint, Manuel. 1967. Colonial Art in Mexico. Elizabeth W. Wilder, ed. and tr. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press.

Tovar de Teresa, Guillermo. 1995. Miguel Cabrera: Pintor de cámara de la reina celestial. Mexico City: InverMéxico.

	Creole: (English) A person of European ancestry born in the Americas. Also criollo (Spanish). back to text
	Jesuits: (English) An order of Catholic priests; Jesuits were leaders in founding schools in Spanish America, educating both Amerindians and the Creole and Spanish elite. They first arrived in Perú in 1568, and in New Spain in 1572. back to text
	Mestizo: (Spanish) A person of indigenous and European descent. The female form is mestiza. back to text
	New Spain: (English) The name that Spain gave to her northern Viceroyalty, which comprised the modern regions of Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, and the Caribbean. The capital city was Mexico City. back to text
	Retablo: (Spanish) A retable, or large backdrop for an altar in a church made of wood or masonry. In Spanish America, retablos traditionally framed sculpted images of saints and church figures or were painted with such images. back to text

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