The Virgin of the Miracle with a Donor

In this scene, an elegantly robed young woman makes a gesture of reverence before a celestial vision of the Virgin Mary. The floating symbols surrounding the apparition are emblematic of specific litanies of address to the Immaculate Virgin. The “Immaculate” aspect of Marian adoration became celebrated as miraculous in the 16th and 17th centuries, after several noted statues of Mary were found undamaged following severe earthquakes and flooding across the Andean highlands. In the 18th century, La Virgen del Milagro was revered by Criollos (American-born colonists legally declared to be of “pure” Spanish blood) for her "candore immacolato" (immaculate whiteness). The dogma of whiteness and purity associated with La Virgen del Milagro was leveraged in opposition to the prominent mestizo admirations of Mary visualized in the adorations of La Virgen de Guadalupe and La Virgen de Belén. This recent acquisition is the first painting from the Spanish colonial period to enter the museums’ collections. In the coming years, the painting will undergo technical analysis and a thorough restoration to correct passages of overpainting and to determine its original architectural and material contexts.