Pedro Fresquís

1749-1831

BiographyThere are no direct antecedents in New Spain (the former Spanish possessions in the northern half of the Western Hemisphere) for this artist’s work, which is generally considered to be the first folk art created in New Mexico. The figures in his primarily flat paintings are defined in simple outline and often feature long narrow noses and oval or crescent-shaped eyes. A number of space-fillers, usually composed of meandering lines, are included in the frames.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of several paintings of this subject by the Truchas Master. During the colonial period and into the 19th century, the image of the Guadalupe Virgin was represented in numerous paintings and sculptures all over New Spain. Artists, the Truchas Master among them, tried to replicate the original image in the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico, a work believed to have been miraculously imprinted on the garment of the Indian Juan Diego, to whom Our Lady is said to have appeared in 1531.
https://americanart.si.edu/artist/pedro-antonio-fresquis-1672

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