An American Miracle

An American Miracle Commentary by Johann Hinrich Claussen Cite Share Show Bible Passage The Virgin of Guadalupe is one of the most important icons of Catholic Christianity, but little is known about her origins and early significance. The fully documented story of the original painted image begins in 1648. What happened before that date can only be discerned in outline: soon after the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1521, a local master must have created an image of the Virgin following a popular model. (This image-type would eventually be codified in Francisco Pacheco's Arte de la Pintura of 1649 as the Immaculate Conception, and is widely present in Spanish art.) This image is based on a vision of the seer John: ‘a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars’ (Revelation 12:1). It is an apocalyptic image of peace. In 1648 and 1649 legends about the origin of the icon were published. The Mother of God had appeared to the indigenous Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, but the Spanish archbishop of Mexico did not believe him. Until, that is, Cuauhtlatoatzin spread out his tilman, the traditional Aztec outer garment, in front of him—and this image of Mary appeared on it. Another 100 years later, around a dozen paintings were created that celebrate this miracle. Like this example by Joaquín Villegas (1713–53), they offer a glimpse into the trinitarian ‘studio’: angels hold the canvas in front of God the Father, who has brush and palette in his hands. The Son is beside him, and the dove of the Holy Spirit above them both. This painting provides a radical answer to the age-old question of how a Christian image of the divine could be possible: God himself painted it—an irrefutable ground for being counted a vera icon. In order to understand this iconography, it is necessary to remember the crucial conflict in colonial Mexico between the criollos, New Spaniards born in Mexico, and the pensinsulares, who came from Spain. The Creoles used the Virgin of Guadalupe, with her divine origin, to assert themselves against domination by the Peninsulares: she was the ‘American miracle’ that proved that the divine no longer resided in Europe but had moved to Mexico. Like the Gospel that the apostles were charged to preach to all nations, she had crossed continents. References Claussen, Johann Hinrich. 2024. Gottes Bilder. Eine Geschichte der christlichen Kunst (C. H. Beck: München) Cuadriello, Jaime. 2002. ‘El obrador trinitario o María de Guadalupe creada en idea, imagen y materia’, in El divino pintor. La creación de María de Guadalupe en el taller celestial (Museo de la Basílica de Guadalupe: Mexico City), pp. 61–205 Katzew, Ilona. 2017. Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici (Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Los Angeles) Lara, Irene. 2008. ‘Tonanlupanisma: Re-Membering Tonantzin-Guadalupe in Chicana Visual Art’, Aztlán 33.2: 61–90 Pérez, Laura Elisa. 2007. Chicana Art: the Politics of Spiritual and Aesthetic Altarities (Durham: Duke University Press) Román-Odio, Clara. 2013. Sacred Iconographies in Chicana Cultural Productions (New York: Palgrave Macmillan)