Our Lady of Guadalupe featured in Metropolitan Museum of Art “Painted in Mexico” exhibit

The Virgin of Guadalupe first became a special guardian (patron) of Mexico City following a devastating epidemic in the valley of Mexico. Jose de Ibarra (1685-1756) painted Our Lady floating over the Valley of Mexico in 1739.

In 1754 the pope officially became a sponsor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. An unknown artist painted this “Allegory of the Patronage of the Virgin of Guadalupe over New Spain, 1781.” The painting cites Psalm 147:20: “”He [God] has not done the like for any other nation.”