Provenance : National Fund for Culture and the Arts in 1991.
Joaquin Villegas was a painter active in the 18th century colonial Mexico. Born in 1713 CE, in Puebla, he painted Christian iconographical paintings in the mature Spanish Baroque aesthetic. Very little archival information is extant of Joaquin as he was one of the scarcely documented painters of the period. This is not uncommon as it was the case with many Mexican colonial painters, especially those who worked outside the most celebrated artistic circles. Joaquin's most famous surviving work is the work titled, "The Eternal Father Painting the Virgin of Guadalupe". It showcases the Baroque visual language by a dramatic composition of celestial figures, rendered in a soft yet luminous and bright colour palette. Within the composition God emerges as a sacred painter at the top of the canvas depicted as completing the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe on Juan Diego's tilma. It follows the trinitarian doctrine as Christ and the Holy spirit are shown accompanying him. In the foreground Juan Diego offers roses, connecting the miracle to the narrative concerning the apparition. This imagery was very significant because debates existed over how the Guadalupan image was formed. Joaquin's painting resolves this debate visually by suggesting that the Virgin's image was painted directly by God. Although Joaquin Villegas is not among the most widely studied Mexican colonial painters, his surviving works remain valuable for understanding the religious devotion of colonial Mexico and the theological semiotics that function as a substructure in the Mexican Baroque painting tradition.
Interestingly, in this painting, God is literally holding a paintbrush and a painter's palette. This specific imagery was eagerly weaponized by the local neo-Hispanic painters' guild. Guild masters used the canvas as legal and cultural leverage to uplift their trade, arguing that if God Himself practiced painting, then it was a noble, intellectual art form rather than a mere mechanical craft or heavily taxed manual labour.
