The Prado Museum Pays Tribute to the Virgin of Guadalupe, a Global Icon of Worship

The Virgin of Guadalupe is the most significant Marian devotion in America, the first image to enjoy global reverence. The exhibition at Madrid's Prado Museum, 'So Far, So Close. Guadalupe of Mexico in Spain', is dedicated to her, featuring nearly 70 pieces including paintings, engravings, sculptures, and books. Since the 17th century, the image has been reproduced incessantly, believed not to be a product of human ingenuity but rather divine intervention. This collection of works, dedicated to a transatlantic icon both devotional and political, is on display until September 14.

A symbol of Mexican identity, the exhibition on the Virgin of Guadalupe offers a unique perspective on the artistic dialogue between America and Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. With the decolonisation of museums in full swing, Prado's director, Miguel Falomir, stated that the exhibition aims to showcase art created in America. "Regarding the decolonisation phenomenon, there is no better way to address it than by showing history," Falomir asserted. "We want to demonstrate that all art holds comparable value. The Prado is committed to promoting equality among artistic productions from all geographies and combating the prejudices that once led the museum to part with its small but exquisite collection of viceregal art."

The works in the exhibition, curated by Jaime Cuadriello and Paula Mues Orts, mainly come from cathedrals, churches, convents, and private collections across Spain. Only a few originate from Mexico, where such devotion leads ten million people to pilgrimage to the slopes of Tepeyac Hill, north of Mexico City, in December to venerate her. However, her fervour extends beyond the borders of the North American country. Her worship also spread to Italy, Portugal, the Philippines, the Caribbean, and other South American viceroyalties.

Painted sometimes as a Creole and other times as an Aztec princess, the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe begins in Mexico when her image appeared to an indigenous peasant, Juan Diego. "It was said that one of her miracles was that she could not be copied, but the truth is that artists sent many images in different sizes and formats. This reproducibility enabled the cult and its expansion," Paula Mues explains. The so-called "Empress of the Americas" was successfully disseminated thanks to merchants and officials travelling back and forth between America and Spain.

There are pieces by New Spanish and peninsular artists such as José Juárez, Juan Correa, Manuel de Arellano, Miguel Cabrera, Velázquez, Zurbarán, and Francisco Antonio Vallejo, among others. All of them recreated an image closely associated with Mexico's independence. It was no coincidence that it was adopted as the insurgents' banner. According to Jaime Cuadriello, the exchange of artworks between the viceroyalty and the metropolis was so intense that the works of Mexican Juan Correa, the most prolific and renowned painter, are no longer found in Mexico but in Granada, Seville, and Valladolid.

Most representations were sent before 1821 by Spaniards, viceroys, bishops, members of religious orders, officials, and families involved in transoceanic trade and mining, people who wanted to share their devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe with their families, congregations, or hometowns. For Cuadriello, it is time to move beyond the sterile model of "colonial art" and start discussing the "imaginary of the Atlantic world."

The Virgin's mantle was conceived as a sacred object, a piece worthy of worship. The exhibition includes exotic materials such as mother-of-pearl, ivory, and brass, which arrived via the Manila Galleon, highlighting the global reach of the Guadalupan cult. "The stamping of her figure from flowers on Juan Diego's cloak led theologians to compare the phenomenon to the transubstantiation of the Eucharist itself," experts asserted.

Due to its nature as a revealed icon, the Guadalupana was permanently veiled, kept in a retablo, and covered by a glass case with curtains, akin to an iconostasis, a characteristic of the Eastern Church. Only during the most solemn ceremonies were those brocade cloths drawn back, allowing it to be viewed.