Agustin del Pino
Oil and lacquer on wood
mother-of-pearl inlay
New Spain
Early eighteenth century
74 x 54 cm

In 1531, the Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego near a hill sacred to the Mother Goddess of the Aztecs. The next day, an image of the Virgin combining features of a native deity and the Christian Madonna, appeared on Juan Diego's cloak, the source for all later images of her. In the Virgin of Guadalupe, indigenous and European traditions come together, and mark the beginning of Christianity in the Americas.