Cristóbal de Villalpando was one of the most prolific painters of New Spain and a contemporary of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Juan Correa. Research on the artist suggests that he married María de Mendoza in 1669 in Mexico City. His eldest son, Carlos de Villalpando, stood out and took over his father's workshop. He also maintained a close friendship with the painters Pedro Ramírez "el Mozo" and Baltazar Echave y Rioja, both of whom were his mentors.

Villalpando began his artistic career in Puebla, where he was influenced by the artists of the city. He drew inspiration from the engravings of the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) to create his own compositions. His work is characterized by a rich use of vivid and warm colors, intricate details in each character, and a sense of luminosity. These allegories, in particular, stand out for their strong symbolic content.

In 1686, Villalpando was appointed supervisor of the guild of painters and sculptors, a role that involved overseeing the quality of artwork and conducting examinations for aspiring artists. He held this position until his death. Among the painters he examined were Nicolás Rodríguez Juárez and Juan Correa, who were hoping to become master painters. Due to his prestige and invitations from various religious orders, such as the Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, and Carmelites, he is considered the leading painter of his time. Given that the paintings in this former Propaganda Fide College have identical dimensions and are oil on canvas, it is possible that they were part of an altarpiece in the Temple of Guadalupe.

It was common in colonial Mexican homes to designate a special space for piety. These domestic chapels housed a religious image, often accompanied by flowers, cloths, candles, and other adornments that enhanced the space. Religious obligations were not limited to specific dates; instead, various prayers were offered at different times of the day, becoming part of the daily routine of the household. The Church recommended various prayers and praises to the Virgin Mary, so many men and women would entrust themselves to and invoke the Mother of the Lord.

Marian invocations refer to the gifts or attributes of the Virgin Mary, as well as her miraculous appearances. The most well-known manifestation in Mexico is that of the Virgin of Guadalupe, who appeared to the indigenous man Juan Diego in 1531 and continues to be regarded as the patroness and protector of Mexicans today.

The Virgin Mary is known by different names, according to the various moments she lived with her son, Jesus Christ. This includes titles such as the Virgin of Sorrows and Our Lady of Piety, which recall scenes from the Passion of Christ. Throughout the country, there are shrines built at sites where Marian apparitions occurred, such as Our Lady of Ocotlán in Tlaxcala, Our Lady of El Pueblito in Querétaro, Our Lady of Itzamal in Yucatán, and Our Lady of Patrocinio in Zacatecas.

One of the characteristics of sculptural work in wood is that, unlike painters who signed their works, sculptures do not typically display the signatures of their creators. One reason for this is that in a carved, polychromed, and gilded sculpture, two workshops were involved: the sculptor's workshop, which would carve the image and leave it "unfinished," and the workshop of the painter-gilder, who would complete the polychrome work on the face and hands, as well as the gilding that mimicked the rich fabrics of the clothing. Therefore, both guild workshops were required to collaborate on these images.

Many sculptors' names are known through contracts discovered by researchers in various archives across the country. One such example is the main altarpiece of the church at the Jesuit College-Novitiate, where the workshops of the painter Miguel Cabrera and the sculptor Higinio de Chávez were involved.

Once the military conquest of the great Tenochtitlan was completed, Hernán Cortés himself requested that King Charles I of Spain send missionaries to evangelize the indigenous people. Initially, three Franciscans arrived, but only Fray Pedro de Gante survived. Later, three religious orders were sent to carry out a systematic plan of catechesis: twelve Franciscans arrived in Mexico in 1524, led by Fray Martín de Valencia; two years later, in 1526, Fray Tomás Ortiz arrived with twelve Dominicans, and finally, in 1533, eight Augustinian friars landed in Veracruz.

These friars and their successors began the catechization of the largest indigenous populations in central New Spain. To facilitate their work, they gathered the indigenous people around the convents they built throughout the territory. These magnificent structures, built by the indigenous people and overseen by the friars, became the central points around which the daily life of these communities revolved.

Here, examples of cane paste sculpture, particularly crucified Christs, and feather mosaics are on display. These pieces are currently stored for conservation purposes, as work is being done on a preventive conservation proposal for this room.

Paulino Manuel Pastrana González was born in Mexico City on June 22, 1859, into a family originally from Villanueva, Zacatecas. In 1873, after passing a rigorous exam, at the age of 13, he entered the Academia de San Carlos on a scholarship. He was one of the youngest students of his generation and became part of the select group of graduates who decided to return to their hometowns. During his early years in Zacatecas, he served as a professor at major schools such as the Instituto de Ciencias, the Escuela Normal de Señoritas, and the Hospicio de Niños.

Pastrana played a crucial role in the education of Zacatecan youth, witnessing the development of several generations who benefited from his teachings. Without prejudice, he taught painting and drawing to Zacatecan women using the method by which he himself had learned. In 1917, he received two important appointments: director of the Museum of Guadalupe and honorary local inspector of artistic monuments. Manuel Pastrana’s artistic legacy places him alongside the great masters of Zacatecan art, alongside figures such as Julio Ruelas and Francisco Goitia.

One of the educational tools used by the Church to teach the faithful was the life of the saints, depicted through their images. In this way, the childhood of the Child Jesus, his sacrifice, and the exemplary lives of the Virgin Mary and the saints served as models to be imitated by New Spanish society.

The various guilds of New Spain adopted one or more patron saints with whom they identified through their profession or, in other cases, through the martyrdom they endured. These figures are recognized by their clothing and attributes, which are objects associated with their lives and/or deaths. The discipline dedicated to studying the lives and works of these saintly figures is called hagiography.

Miguel Cabrera, the artist behind the series depicting the life of the Virgin Mary, was one of the most prolific painters of the New Spanish Baroque. It is believed that he was born around 1695 in the Villa de Antequera, now Oaxaca. The Museum of Guadalupe in Zacatecas, which houses one of the most important colonial art collections in Mexico, holds this magnificent series consisting of 14 oil-on-canvas paintings from the 18th century, originally created for an altarpiece.

Baroque artists were tasked with capturing and giving form to the aesthetic aspirations of a society whose worldview and daily life were centered around the Catholic religion. In the 16th century, the Catholic Church defended Marian worship, which had been challenged by the Protestant ideals of Martin Luther, who rejected religious images in practices.

During the colonial period, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries, the female universe focused on religion. Women were content to live devoutly according to the model of the Virgin Mary, considered the most perfect being after Christ, striving to imitate her from childhood to her final years of life.

Antonio de Torres was born in Mexico City and was the penultimate of five siblings, the son of Tomás de Torres and Lorenzana Rodríguez. He married at the age of 19, and during his youth, he trained in his uncle's workshop, Antonio Rodríguez, alongside his cousins Nicolás and Juan Rodríguez Juárez.

Torres is known for being a Baroque painter, characterized by the intensity of his colors, the sweetness in the faces of his characters, and his compositions filled with various elements. An example of this is the series on the Life of the Virgin Mary, based on the Apocryphal Gospels, which detail the childhood of the Mother of the Savior.

His work is abundant and widely scattered, both in Mexico City and across much of the central and northern regions of New Spain, along the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro: San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, Durango, Chihuahua, and Santa Fe in the present-day state of New Mexico, USA. In 1720, he worked for the Franciscans of Propaganda Fide, decorating the sacristy of the Temple of Guadalupe with three canvases, which can be considered the finest works produced by his brush.

Gabriel José de Ovalle was born in Mexico City in the last quarter of the 17th century. He began his career in painting in 1726 and married María Teresa de Almanza from Zacatecas. From that point on, he worked in Durango and Zacatecas. He considered himself more than just a producer of images; he saw himself as a self-aware creative artist.

His series on the Passion of Christ consists of 15 oil paintings on canvas, completed in 1749 for the Franciscans of Propaganda Fide in Guadalupe. From then until his death, Ovalle lived in this city.

In the series, various pictorial features define Ovalle as an artist with a distinctive style. Through his use of color and drawing, he expresses emotions and feelings in his characters, who are divided between good and evil. Striking details, such as the use of red to signify evil, as well as caricatured and grotesque figures, contribute to the overall dramatic effect. Ovalle’s intentional manipulation of proportions and disproportion in the human figures to define their individual character makes him unique within the world of Baroque painters.

The Baroque was a style that transformed the way people lived, thought, and felt in the colonial world. The Museum of Guadalupe houses significant colonial artworks that fall within this trend.