Our+Lady+of+Guadalupe

Date: ca. 1780-1830
 * [[image:http://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=http://americanart.si.edu/images/1986/1986.65.113_1a.jpg&max=460 width="231" height="364" link="@http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=8646"]] || **Title:** Our Lady of Guadalupe

**Artist:** Pedro Antonio Fresquís Born: 1749 Died: 1831

Medium: water-based paint on wood Dimensions: 18 5/8 x 10 3/4 x 7/8 in. (47.3 x 27.3 x 2.2 cm.) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson

Accession: 1986.65.113 || //Our Lady of Guadalupe// represents the blending of cultures that form the basis of Hispanic America; she is according to some scholars "the first mestiza," or "the first Mexican." Her veneration is an example of a syncretic religious belief systems. Religious syncretism is when two or more belief systems are blended together to create a new system. Roman Catholicism in Latin America and the American Southwest has in the very least a distinct “dialect” from Spanish Roman Catholicism. When the conquistadors completed the conquest the Aztec Empire in 1521 they built their new colony on top of the ruins of the indigenous civilization and that practice continued during the expansion of New Spain. The foundations of many churches are the very same foundations of temples to Aztec gods. Mexico City is built atop the Aztec capitol, Tenochtitlan. While Hernan Cortes hoped to erase the old order by building over it, instead the traditional modes simply morphed with Spanish customs or went underground. //Our Lady of Guadalupe// is one example of this morphing. While the iconography of the Our Lady is fully Catholic, she has layers of meaning related to Aztec religious concepts for indigenous devotees. The blue-green mantel was the color reserved for the divine couple, her belt a sign of pregnancy, and the rays surrounded her can be read as spines of maguey (the source of the sacred beverage pulque). The Lady of Guadalupe is also known as “the mother of maguey” and pulque is often referred to as “the milk of the Virgin.” Tepeyac Hill, the place where the Virgin was said to have appeared to an Aztec convert, was a pre-Columbian sacred site associated with the Aztec earth goddess. Finally, the skin tone and physical features of the Lady of Guadalupe are purely Hispanic. Looking closely at the Fresquis’ piece you can see that the Lady is a mestiza girl or young woman with high cheek-bones, delicate features, and black hair framing her face.
 * About the Artwork: **

Our Lady of Guadalupe - P100 Entry Onda Latina - Our Lady of Guadalupe
 * Resources: **

About the Artist SAAM Collections Page
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