Lot 180: Nicolas Enriquez (Mexican, Active 1720s-1770s)

Nicolas Enriquez (Mexican, Active 1720s-1770s)
Cycle of the Life of the Virgin Mary
each panel signed and dated: a) Birth of the Virgin Mary: 'Ns Enriq.z Fac.t Mexici Anno 1765' (lower left)
b) Marriage of the Virgin Mary: 'Ns Enriq.z Fac.t Mexici Anno 1765' (lower right)
c) Death of the Virgin Mary: 'Ns Enriqz Fac.t Ao 1765' (lower left)
d) Assumption of the Virgin Mary: 'Ns E. Mexici A. 1765' (lower center)
oil on copper
each panel: 11 x 8½ in. (28 x 22 cm.) excluding frame
Painted in 1765.
Four in one lot (4)

Royer SA, Paris.
Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe.
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

PROPERTY FROM LA COLECCIÓN PEREGRINA VIRREINAL, FUNDACIÓN ARTE SACRO ANTONIO ROIG-FERRÉ, SAN JUAN

Nicolás Enríquez who was active in Mexico City from the 1720s to the early 1770s, may have been from Guadalajara. Enríquez's Cycle of the Life of the Virgin Mary describes four events in the life of the Virgin Mary. Unlike the descriptions in the Bible of the childhood of Jesus, little is known about the Virgin. Scholar Marcus Burke has written that by the thirteenth century, Voragine's Golden Legend included her birth but little else; Byzantine artists were the first to illustrate events in the Virgin's life and thus, were inventive in the images that they produced. The rich tradition that has come down draws attention to the special role that Mary plays as both the mother of God and humanity.

In this exceptional cycle, four events in the life of the Virgin are illustrated--her birth, her marriage to Joseph, her dormition or death and her assumption to Heaven. Enríquez's small-scale works have a jewel-like quality. The four panels are painted on copper panels and have a shimmering quality that would have made them the perfect devotional instruments. Their beauty as religious objects is only transcended by the power they held as the means to inspire piety.