The Miguel Cabrera Exposition, and the works of his immediate antecessors.

Next Wednesday, February 17th, we will be visiting the  Museo Nacional del Virreinato, in order to see a exposition dedicated to the Intellectual and Artistic life of the great Mexican baroque Painter, Miguel Cabrera. The name of the exposition is "La Tramas de la Creación" or "Episodes of Creation".

 

Just as Michelangelo, Rafaello and Leonardo da Vinci are our everyday points of reference for the Italian Renaissance, as far as the Golden Are of Baroque Art in Colonial Mexico is concerned, ther are two giants: Cristobal de Villalpando and Miguel Cabrera. Unfortunately we know a great deal less about these unsung heroes of Mexican Art, than we know of the Italian maestros.. For those who have followed this blog fro its inception in  2014,  our group, Road of Faith and Art, has spent a lot of time "in the tracks", visiting and analyzing the great works of  Villalpando, so this year we find it fitting to shed some needed light on Cabrera.

 

With a similar idea in mind, the Exposition attempts to aid the visitor, showing Miguel Cabrera in his historical and Esthetic moment, opening up the first sala or hall with a group of works by four of the most prominent painters of the two previous generations to Cabrera:

• Cristobal del Villalpando (1649-1714),
• Juan Correa (1646-1716),
• Nicolás Rodriguez Juarez (1666-1734) and
• José de Ibarra (1688-17569.

With Cristobal del Villalpando, we see  his Dolorosa, on loan from the Profesa.
.

La Dolorosa at the Profesa

Juan Correa shows us his Virgin of the Apocalypses , with its frightening portrayal of the hideous 7 headed monster menacing  the Blessed Virgin, and the Infant Jesus. Curiously, Juan Correa paints the Infant Jesus as a mulato, a person born with both European as well as African blood,  just as Correa was in real life..

Nicolás Nicolás Rodriguez renders us the theme of the Transfiguration.

At last, Our Lady of Carmen, from Guatemala, by José de Ibarra. José de Ibarra was Miguel Cabrera's maestro or teacher.

Miguel Cabrera represents a full step further along the road of painting technique and particularly in questions concerning perspective, which are very clear as we go through this initial sala of the exposition.