Juan Manuel de Ávila

This signed depiction of the Virgin of Guadalupe is a rare example of the work of Juan Manuel de Ávila, who was active in Mexico during the mid-18^th century. The iconography, whereby the Virgin is portrayed surrounded by a golden mandorla, is associated with a series of five Marian apparitions to a Mexican peasant named Juan Diego (1474–1548) and his uncle, Juan Bernardino. These are believed to have occurred in December 1531, when the Mexican territories were controlled by the Spanish Empire.

Manuel de Ávila was also a talented portraitist. His Double portrait of a Carmelite monk and a nobleman with the Virgin of Mount Carmel is today in the Denver Museum of Art.¹ A Portrait of Sr. Regidor Don Manuel Joseph Pérez Valiente de Moctezuma sold for $81,250 in 2019.²

¹ Accession no. 2013.358; oil on canvas, 203.2 x 127 cm.; https://www.denverartmuseum.org/en/object/2013.358.

² New York, Christie's, 21 November 2019, lot 129, for $81,250; https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6236739.