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An essay by Darian Dveris
Miguel Cabrera, The Virgin of the Apocalypse, 1760, oil on canvas, 352.7 x 340 cm (Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA)
A Heavenly Battle
Amid a heavenly battle scene, a woman in windswept robes of blue and white trods on the head of a serpent, her head tilted downwards as she watches the creature being crushed underfoot. Positioned at the center of the composition, she dominates the scene, levitating upon a blue orb that divides the misty heavens from the earthly realm. Swaths of clouds frame her figure while an enameled stream flows beneath her. An outcropping of land at her right offers a glimpse of lush vegetation and the hazy image of a male figure in blue robes.
To the left an armored figure rushes to her aid. He holds his sword aloft as he prepares to strike the writhing serpent, its tail thrashing, its many heads flailing and snapping. An army of angelic beings surge behind him, emerging from dark clouds, readying to cast the creature into the demon-filled hell below. Meanwhile cherubs flit and tumble about, traversing easily between the heavens and the realm of the earth-bound. One presents the central figure with a bouquet of roses and an ornate mirror. Another clutches a bundle of lilies, while one in the upper right brandishes a palm frond. Behind the woman, an elder man soars above, his robes billowing behind him as he extends the wings attached to her back.
Miguel Cabrera, The Virgin of the Apocalypse (details), 1760, oil on canvas, 352.7 x 340 cm (Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA)
Divine Triumph
This is a scene of divine triumph. The orb of golden light that emanates from behind the figure of the woman and the pastel hues of the painting are reminiscent of dawn, perhaps alluding to the defeat of darkness, giving way to the light of a new day.
The rapturous gazes of the cherubs underscore this idea, as does the infant in the woman’s arms; rather than appear frightened by the scene of violence unfolding beneath him, he turns his gaze upward, joyously throwing a chubby arm towards the heavens. The woman, as well, appears calm and serene. She trods delicately upon the serpent, her face impassive. She is imbued more with grace and beauty than the forthright bravado such a daring act would necessitate. Good has prevailed.
The Virgin of the Apocalypse
Indeed, the iconography of this scene derives from Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation, a passage of scripture prophesying the end of the world and the second coming of Christ. [1] Revelation describes “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” pursued by a dragon who wishes to devour her unborn child. The central female figure crushing the serpent’s head corresponds directly with this description. The orb of light behind her indicates the sun, and upon close inspection, she indeed bears a “crown of twelve stars” as does the child she carries and the elder man behind her.
This is the Virgin of the Apocalypse, the Christian figure for which Miguel Cabrera entitled this 1760 work. She is often understood as a representation of the Virgin Mary or even of Christianity itself.
Peter Paul Rubens, The Virgin as the Woman of the Apocalypse, 1623–1624, oil on panel (The J. Paul Getty Museum). Image Courtesy of the Getty Center Open Content Program
Networks of Artistic Exchange
Already in vogue in European Baroque art, images of the Woman of the Apocalypse proliferated throughout viceregal Mexico beginning in the 17th century, transmitted to the Americas with fervor via prints and other media. Cabrera’s, specifically, was inspired by a reproduction by Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens, The Woman of the Apocalypse, 1623-25. Cabrera’s bears a similar composition to Rubens’, with the Virgin at the center, the same dark surge of figures to the left as they charge for the serpent, a glimpse of vista to the right. The twist of the Virgin’s body as she looks down to crush the dragon mimics Cabrera’s, and she levitates upon the same blue orb. Her child throws his arm towards the heavens in the very same gesture, and the composition is also crowned with an elder male figure, representing God the Father.
Rubens was under the employ of the Spanish Crown at the time, held in high regard by King Philip IV. Clearly, The Woman of the Apocalypse was reproduced in print and sent to the Americas, where it kindled the artistic spirit of mestizo painter Miguel Cabrera. Cabrera’s painting is thus testament to a rich period of artistic exchange.
Beautiful and didactic
As both itinerant European artists (like Baltasar de Echave Ibía) and prominent Creoles took up the evangelizing efforts of the Spanish crown, they sought to produce works that both appealed to the native populace and served a didactic function. Particularly in the wake of the Protestant Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, Spanish artists were especially keen to articulate the religious power of art and call followers to Catholicism. Art was not only supposed to communicate tenets of the faith, but rouse the spirit through emotion and effect.
Cabrera’s work exhibits this interest. The figures are clear and identifiable (the Virgin’s iconography is derived directly from scripture, the child in her arms is most clearly the infant Jesus, the man above her immediately recognizable as God the Father). Furthermore, the undulating forms, balance of calm and frenetic energy, and the sheer beauty of the work serve to inspire. There is a bit of heightened emotionality and drama present, characteristic of Baroque artworks, perhaps even reminiscent of Mannerism. This drama renders Cabrera’s scene of heavenly triumph visually persuasive and engages the senses.
Furthermore, by positioning Mary at the center, Cabrera calls attention to the importance of Mary to Catholic doctrine. Images of the Woman of the Apocalypse and various other Marian advocations would become popular visual tropes throughout viceregal Mexico for communicating her significance.
Miguel Cabrera, The Virgin of the Apocalypse (detail), 1760, oil on canvas, 352.7 x 340 cm (Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA)
Miguel Cabrera, The Virgin of the Apocalypse (detail), 1760, oil on canvas, 352.7 x 340 cm (Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA)
Crushing of the serpent detail. Miguel Cabrera, The Virgin of the Apocalypse, 1760, oil on canvas, 352.7 x 340 cm (Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA)
A reference to pagan tradition
Cabrera’s work, however, does not lend solely to Christian interpretation. Although the crushing of the serpent is most often understood as the defeat of heresy, the writhing creature could also pay heed to Mesoamerican pagan religion. [2]
The Aztecs worshipped various deities with snake-like attributes. Quetzacoatl was one, a feathered serpent god, and Coatlicue was another, a goddess whose name literally translates as “Snakes Her Skirt.”[3] The vanquishing of the serpent could reference the defeat of Mesoamerican pagan tradition, eradicated by the evangelizing efforts of the Spanish Crown.
Serpents were very important to Aztec religion, and were prevalent in the religious iconography of Mesoamerica.
Mosaic of a Double-headed Serpent, c. 15th-16th century, cedrela wood, turquoise, pine resin, oyster shell, hematite, and copal, 20.5 x 43.3 x 6.5 cm, Mexico © Trustees of the British Museum
However, Cabrera’s work was not the first to tie Christian imagery to polytheistic tradition. For instance, Our Lady of Cocharcas, painted in 1765, depicts the Virgin in a conical dress reminiscent of the shape of a mountain, referencing Mary’s association with Pachamama, the Andean mother earth goddess. [4] The Virgin of Guadalupe, a beloved devotional icon in Mexico, also held ties to indigenous myth. The supposed site of her miraculous appearance to Juan Diego was at Tepeyac, the same site at which the Aztec mother earth goddess, Tonantzin, was once venerated. [5]
Our Lady of Cocharcas, 1765, oil on canvas, 198.8 x 143.5 cm (Brooklyn Museum)
A strange limbo
Cabrera’s painting is, without a doubt, distinctively Latin American. In material, content, and style the work speaks to vast networks of exchange and instances of cultural cross-fertilization. Various interpretations of the work also speak to the peculiar overlap of pagan tradition and Christian iconography unique to devotional works of Latin America. Visually bilingual and drawing on a multitude of influences that make it difficult to classify, the work embodies all that is Latin America: distinctly Western, distinctly non-Western, distinctly Christian but maintaining ties to pagan tradition. Cabrera's Virgin of the Apocalypse exists in that strange limbo between categories in which most artworks of Latin America remain forever suspended.
Notes
[1] Melisa Palermo, "Miguel Cabrera, Virgin of the Apocalypse," in Smarthistory, August 27, 2016, accessed April 1, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/cabrera-apocalypse/.
[2] Melisa Palermo, "Miguel Cabrera, Virgin of the Apocalypse," in Smarthistory, August 27, 2016, accessed April 1, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/cabrera-apocalypse/.
[3] Patricia Harrington. "Mother of Death, Mother of Rebirth: The Mexican Virgin of Guadalupe." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 56, no. 1 (1988): 25-50.
[4] Ananda Cohen-Aponte, "Our Lady of Cocharcas and the Cuzco School of Painting," in Smarthistory, October 16, 2019, accessed April 1, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/our-lady-of-cocharcas-cuzco-school/.
[5] Jeanette Favrot Peterson. Visualizing Guadalupe. Austin, Texas, University of Texas Press, 2014.
Bibliography
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