The Chair Heritage and Art of Navarre publishes a monograph on images of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Navarre

The Chair Navarrese Heritage and Art at the School Philosophy Letters of the University of Navarra has published the book "Images of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Navarre. Promotion and identity from Mexico," written by Professor Ricardo Fernández Gracia, director the Chair, and sponsored by the TW Foundation. The work, which analyzes the artistic, devotional, and identity links between Navarre and Mexico through those who made the images of the Virgin of Tepeyac possible, is a fundamental contribution to understanding the bequest of New Spain in the Autonomous Community and the projection of the Virgin of Guadalupe as a spiritual and cultural symbol on both sides of the Atlantic.

The monograph brings together extensive documentation from various archives, allowing for the precise identification of numerous donors and promoters of these pieces. As Professor Fernández Gracia explains, "many of these works arrived from Mexico between the 17th and 19th centuries, sent by Indianos, clergymen, merchants, or benefactors with strong ties to the land of Navarre." The Issue also Issue an introductory text by renowned specialist Jaime Cuadriello, researcher the Institute of Aesthetic Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), who highlights the complexity involved for art historians in reconstructing not only the provenance of the works, but also their social reception and the messages conveyed by images of devotion over time.

In his prologue, Professor Cuadriello highlights that Fernández work allows us to "peek into all the networks and connections established between civil servants, merchants, clergy, nuns, and wealthy Indians who embraced the Guadalupan devotion of Mexico," as well as to understand the extraordinary symbolic power of an image "programmed to expand" and become an emblem of identity, prophecy, and interculturalism. In this regard, he points out that the case of the Kingdom of Navarre is particularly significant, as it was one of the first territories to receive and venerate the so-called "true portraits" of the Virgin of Guadalupe, some of which are of B and artistic quality.

The book offers an extensive tour of works preserved in locations such as Estella, Viana, Tafalla, Pamplona, Corella, Tudela, Irurita, Arre, Lecumberri, and Zúñiga. Among them are paintings signed by prominent New Spanish masters—such as Juan Correa, Antonio de Torres, José Páez, Rodríguez Carnero, and Francisco Antonio Vallejo—as well as lost pieces and documents that bear witness to the spread of devotion to Guadalupe in the region. According to Cuadriello, the publication not only presents an Catalog annotated Catalog , but also proposes a social typology of the patrons and reveals patterns of family, economic, and spiritual networks that connected Navarre and Mexico for generations.

This study is the research comprehensive research to date on the numerous Guadalupe paintings, copper works, altarpieces, and sumptuous artworks preserved in Navarre. The book reveals not only the artistic value of these collections, but also the human history that made them possible: family relationships, transatlantic shipments, devotional commissions, and links between Navarre and Mexico maintained over generations. As the author points out, an essential part of work consisted of "documenting, contextualizing, and attributing each work to its patron," a complex task that has made it possible to reconstruct previously unknown itineraries and motivations.

The work was presented on December 12, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, at the Church of the Augustinian Recollects in Pamplona, with speeches by Rosalía Baena, Vice President Students at the University of Navarra; Carlos Llonis, President of the TW Foundation; and Professor Fernández Gracia, author of the monograph. The event featured musical performances by Julián Ayesa, organist at Pamplona Cathedral, and Víctor Castillejo, tenor. At the end of the presentation, attendees were able to view the painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe, a work by Juan Correa that arrived in the Navarran capital around 1697, preserved in the cloister of the Recoletas, and which was exceptionally displayed in the presbytery for the event.

The work can be downloaded free of charge at this link.