Clad in sunlight, she stands before us. The Virgen Iluminada Painting is a replica of the original miraculous image. It resides in the Basilica of Guadalupe here in Mexico City.
This particular image is not solely a painting. It is actually what is called enconchado. Mother-of-pearl shell is inlaid into wood. The mother-of-pearl creates a reflective surface. It flickers and changes as your eyes move across it. This suggests the heavenly and the divine.
She is shrouded in sunlight. Stars adorn her cloak. This imagery comes from the Book of Revelation. It talks about the Woman of the Apocalypse. She was similarly shrouded in the sun and had stars around her head. Here they have been placed onto her cloak.
She stands on the moon. An angel supports her. The Virgen de Guadalupe miraculously appeared to an Indigenous man named Juan Diego. This happened only ten years after Spain defeated the Aztecs.
She appeared to Juan Diego on top of the Hill of Tepeyac. You can still go there today. The basilica is located there. She speaks in his language, Nahuatl. She tells him to go to the bishop. She wants a shrine in her honor at this hill.
This is a moment in time when the Spanish intensely convert the Indigenous peoples. This miraculous vision to an Indigenous person confirmed the correctness of replacing religions. They replaced the religions that were here with Christianity.
In fact, the hill had been a location for an Earth Mother deity. There had been a temple. After Juan Diego goes to the bishop, the bishop does not believe him. This happens several more times. The Virgin tells Juan Diego to gather Castilian roses in his tilma. His cloak is brought to the bishop as a sign that she is actually appearing to Juan Diego.
When he opens his tilma before the bishop the roses fall out. The miraculous image of Guadalupe is imprinted on it. That is the image that is in the Basilica of Guadalupe today.
The Virgen Iluminada has ashen skin. She is known as the Dark Virgin. This has several layers of meaning. For one, it relates to the Old Testament Song of Songs. There the beloved says, I am black but beautiful. This woman in the Song of Songs is read by Christians as an analog for the Virgin Mary.
It is also significant here in Mexico. Because there is the darker skin, she has become this Indigenous avocation of the Virgin Mary. The Virgen Iluminada is so popular here in Mexico. She is the patron saint of Mexico City. She was thought to have performed many miracles. These happened even after the initial miracles with Juan Diego.
She becomes the co-patroness of New Spain in 1737. She intervenes in horrible epidemics. These epidemics killed many people. She has become a major symbol of Mexico and Mexican identity.
This enconchado is helping to create an even more sacred image of Guadalupe. Many consider the original image of Guadalupe to be a work not made by human hands. It is divinely created. Some consider the image the product of an Indigenous artist named Marcos Cipac. He was working in the 1550s.
In the original image, still enshrined in the basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City today, Guadalupe averts her gaze. She clasps her hands together in piety. She stands on a crescent moon. A seraph supports her below. She wears Marys traditional colors. She has a brilliant blue cloak over her dress. Embroidered roses decorate her rose-colored dress. Golden stars adorn her cloak. A mandorla of light surrounds her.
Images depicting Guadalupe proliferated in the seventeenth century. Devotion to her increased. Prints, paintings, and enconchados replicate the original tilma image. Artists included inscriptions. They mention the representation is a true copy of the tilma image.
Manuel de Arellano writes After the original on his 1691 version of Guadalupe. This suggests that artists based their work on the original image. Some of the power of the original image transferred to the replication. Besides replicating the tilma image, artists often included the narrative of the miracle in the four corners of the composition. Frequently flowers frame the mandorla surrounding Guadalupe. This is a direct reference to the Castilian roses in Juan Diegos tilma.
Some artists placed an eagle perched on a cactus below Guadalupe. This had long functioned as a sign for the establishment of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. It became Mexico City after the Conquest. Guadalupe’s connection to creole identity and the creole desire for Mexican independence was solidified. Father Miguel Hidalgo raised a liturgical banner of Guadalupe during his cry for independence in 1810.