- We're standing in the former palace of Agustin de Iturbide, and we're looking at a Crowned Nun Portrait. - And this is a full-length
life-sized portrait, she's frontal, she's a
beautiful young woman, elaborately dressed. - This particular nun, Maria Guadalupe, is from a Conceptionist
convent in the city of Puebla and so the Conceptionist
Order was the earliest one founded for women here in New Spain and it was reserved for the wealthiest, elite, pure-blooded Spanish women - And so when we think
about nuns, we think about taking a vow of poverty,
living a very simple life, so we might imagine that
she is going to renounce all of the wealth and
luxury we see her with because what we're seeing
is Maria on the day when she takes her vows, but in fact the life she leads is not
really one of deprivation when she enters the nunnery. - Though there were many female Orders that took intense vows of
poverty, the Conceptionists were not one of those Orders. You came in with a dowry for instance. - Very much like any marriage. - And in fact she is getting married, she's getting married
in this case to Christ. The Conceptionists could
actually have vast libraries, musical instruments, and we
see some of that reflected in this portrait. - The day that a woman took her vows, the day that she professed was a day of communal celebration, this
was a big deal in her life, and this portrait was
intended for her family to remember her by after
she took those vows and left her family. - Even if you could have wealth when you entered into the convent, you still were living a cloistered life, meaning you are dead to the outside world. This was not only a big deal for her, it's a really important
moment for her family as well. - It almost reminds me of the way today we take photographs of someone on the day that they graduate from high school. She looks very proud, you can
feel the pride of her family while looking at her in this portrait. - She's wearing this
wonderful crown that is made of flowers and these
little metal or wax angels and then she's also holding a sculpture of a Christ child in her left
hand, and in her right hand this enormous candle
decorated with more flowers. - So she's being associated
with her namesake, with the Virgin Mary, we
might think about paintings of the Virgin Mary
holding the Christ child, we might be reminded of paintings of the Assumption of the
Virgin Mary into Heaven where she's crowned, and so there is both this idea of her as the
bride of Christ but also an association of her
with the Virgin Mary. - The Conceptionists really made this connection to the Virgin Mary clear, they are known to wear
blue cloaks which are seen Maria Guadalupe wear
here, and if you look at where the cloak is fastened,
just below her chin, we see this really
wonderful circular element, and this is what's called a nun's badge, and it's jewelry, in many cases
it was tortoise shell frame with a painting on copper in the center, and in this case we're seeing an image of the Virgin of the
Immaculate Conception. - So we can tell that
because we have iconography or symbolism like the stars
that surround Virgin's head, the moon at her feet, and the Immaculate
Conception refers to the idea that the Virgin Mary herself
was conceived without sin. - And you'll notice that
in this nun's badge, the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception wears the same blue mantle
or cloak that the nun displayed here is wearing. - The most fabulous part of her outfit is that long pleat down
the front of her dress, just ironing that would
have taken a very long time, this is a very luxurious outfit. - And reflects the wealth
of this religious Order, and also reflects the
wealth of her family. - So let's talk about the
Christ child that she holds for a moment, because
that may look rather odd to our eyes, because it is a
sculpture, almost like a doll of the Christ child, he's holding a staff, he's dressed beautifully,
he's got a gold crown that's got jewels in it on his head. - And we know that these
sculptures of the Christ child were often treated as
stand-ins for children as a way to channel
those maternal instincts. And this is a tradition that
you see in western Europe as well, you could dress these
dolls of the Christ child, they are also associated with
the wealth of your Orders, it makes sense given who we're seeing in this particular portrait. - She also wears a very
long chain of rosary beads and if we follow those down we
see an elaborate inscription that identifies the nun
and tells us the date on which she professed
or entered the Order. - This inscription tells us that she is the legitimate daughter of two elites, her parents are named as a Don and a Dona, meaning that they are very high
up in the social hierarchy, tells us where she professes as a nun, and it tells us the date, July 4th, 1800. - Maria also carries a very long candle which is also very luxurious,
it's lit at the top, it's wreathed with roses and carnations, flowers associated with Virgin Mary, with virginity, with love, with marriage. - It's another ostentatious
symbol here, similar to the ostentatious array
of flowers, the huge crown. - The jewelry that she wears,
that fastens her cloak. - Something to note about the crown, in addition to the same flowers
that we see on the candle is that the crown both alludes to, say, the crown of thorns that Christ wears, but it also relates to the crowning of the Virgin Mary in
Heaven after her death. - And we have this lovely coming together, across the composition, of reds, of blues, of whites, of pale brown colors, it's just a tour de force of painting as well as this amazing moment for Maria. - And we can't help but be drawn to her because she's looking
out at us, as a woman who's about to renounce her worldly life and enter a cloistered convent. There's something very alluring about this to us in the 21st century still. - Yeah, this is a moment of transition in her very young life.