This work from the Amparo Museum represents Juan de Palafox Mendoza (1600-1651), a prelate in Puebla de los Angeles from 1640 to 1649. It is an engraving painted with great care and delicacy in which Palafox looks at the spectator and touches his pectoral cross, insomuch that behind one can see the miters of the bishoprics that governed.
Palafox y Mendoza is a figure that stands out both in the history of the New Hispanic Church of the 17th century, as well as that of the Hispanic culture of the Golden Age. The illegitimate son of a distinguished noble Aragonese house, he was recognized by his father and designated to the ecclesiastical career, but it did not take long for him to break into the political courts in the shadow of the Count Duke of Olivares, valid son of King Felipe IV. Because of his talents he was sent in 1640 to the Indies as the Bishop of Puebla de los Angeles and inquisitor general of New Spain, in what would be a tumultuous stay. The bishop arrived accompanied by two artists: Pedro Garcia Ferrer and Diego de Borgraf, who would be very important for the development of paintings in Puebla.
Politically speaking, during the period he would carry out the arduous task of cleaning up irregularities and corruption in all royal courts of the kingdom, and would even briefly take command of the Viceroyalty after suspicions of disloyalty to the Crown replaced Viceroy Marques de Villena in 1642. Ecclesiastically, while the archbishop of Mexico also governed for a brief period, he spent most of his efforts on the diocese of Puebla. Devoted to increasing episcopal authority, he concluded the construction of his cathedral and tried to limit by distinct means the influence of the mendicant orders and the Jesuits. His actions were confronted by the most powerful interests of the Vice-royalty, and serious civil unrest was unleashed, all of which led to the Crown calling him back to Spain in 1649. Distanced from royal grace, he was appointed bishop of Burgo de Osma, where he would die in the midst of rumors of sanctity. As a legacy to his posterity he left a vast and valuable written body of works, both spiritual and political, but also an intense and lasting controversy regarding his persona and his actions. In June 2011 he was finally beatified.
Since the latter years of the 17th century, the figure of the bishop Juan de Palafox increasingly became the archetype for excellence of the New Spanish prelate, particularly due to the commitment with which he had sustained episcopal authority in processes such as the secularization of the doctrines still in the hands of the regular clergy in the bishopric of Puebla. His successors in the miter during the 18th century, as well as the council of the cathedral of Puebla itself and the carmelita order, were generally in favor of the open process in Rome for his beatification. This cause received significant impulse when King Carlos III converted Palafox into an official symbol of anti-Jesuitism, while he worked through his representatives before the Holy See to impulse the beatification of the bishop. Although the controversy that his figure continued to cause within the church and the politicization of the cause frustrated the process at that time, these attempts were enough to fuel the fervor for Palafox in Puebla, and for the perpetuation of the collective memory of the figure of the bishop as a type of second founder of the city. All of these events caused for his effigy to be extensively reproduced, and although in recent times both the personage and his representations have been studied, the engraving on which this portrait was painted has not been able to be located.
His effigy is painted on an engraving that is in turn attached to a fabric. Due to the visible characteristics of the paper, it was suspected that it could be a work manufactured in the 19th century, although its theme seemed to belong more to the 18th. Due to this discrepancy, a study of the materials constituting the piece was suggested. For this purpose samples were taken from the textile on which the paper rests and of the paper itself, for there are studies related to the use of certain materials during the entire New Spain period, which changed as the 19th century went on, and the industrial revolution brought about the presence of new materials and strengthened industrialized productions that give hints about its date.
The presence of liber fibers were noted in the sample extracted from the fabric that may correspond to the linen plant; this isolated information did not make it possible to define the period of creation of this painting since the use of this type of fabrics was very common in New Spain. The use of crude linen was preferred for the textile s in easel painting, which were imported from Europe. However, there was a local textile painting that was very irregular due to the prohibitions derived from the Spanish crown. Toward the beginning of the 19th century it was decided, for political and economic reasons, to suspend the import of linen and substitute it for regional cotton fabrics.[1] This leaves an extensive period that includes the first decades of 1800, in which both materials coexist and are even used in mixing for manufacturing fabrics. For its part, the paper was manufactured during the Vice-royal period with rags, mostly linen, but further on in the 19th century, specifically toward 1840, the paper began to be produced with maceration or wood pulp. [2] In this work one can see stalk fiber, not wood, among which are linen, hemp and jute. This allows the confirmation that this work was not created in the 19th century, but during the New Spain period.
In addition to these results, an analysis of the color palette of the image with x-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) was conducted.[3] The pigments used in the work were: vermilion, lead white, shadow earth, gold leaf and Prussian blue. Precisely because of this last pigment, synthesized since 1704,[4] together with the other results, it was also confirmed that it belonged to the pictorial production of the 18th century.
1. Sumano, Rita, “Los soportes textiles de las pinturas mexicanas (Textile backing in Mexican paintings). Estudio estadístico e histórico (A statistical and historical study)”, in Intervención (Intervención). Revista Internacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museología (International Magazine of Preservation, Restoration and Museology), Mexico, INAH, Year 2, Number 3, January - June, 2011, pgs. 42-50.
2. Olcott Price, Lois, Line, Shade and Shadow. The fabrication and Presentation of Architectural Drawings, EUA, Oak Knoll Press, HES & DE GRAFF Publishers, Winterthur Museum and Garden & Library, 2010, pg. 17.
3. Study by Jose Luis Ruvalcaba Sil, April 2012, pgs. 2-4.
4. Easteaugh, Nicolas, Pigment Compendium, Italia, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2008, pg. 315.
