Portrait of Sor Juana de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe

This painting exemplifies an unusual type of portraiture that is unique to colonial Mexico. It commemorates the ceremony during which a sixteen-year-old girl professed the vows of a Conceptionist nun and entered the Mexico City convent of Regina Coeli. She wears the profession regalia of the Order of the Immaculate Conception, including the characteristic nuptial crown and rings that identify her as a "bride of Christ." She is dressed in the distinctive habit of the order, popularly known as "blue nuns," after the color of their robes. Over her heart, she wears a large pictorial badge that depicts the Virgin Mary flanked by her parents, Saint Joachim and Saint Anne. The wearing of such badges was a practice unique to Conceptionist and Jeronymite nuns. She carries a small, dressed sculpture of the Christ Child who raises his right hand in blessing and, in the other hand, holds a blue globe that symbolizes his dominion over the world. The use of such images as devotional aids was widespread, especially among women, who often received them as gifts from their mothers or other female relatives. Sometimes called "crowned nuns," portraits like this one not only record the appearance of a young woman at the time of her religious profession, but they also portray the taking of a new name and identity. Sor Juana de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, formerly Juana Valdés, has assumed a religious identity as well as a patriotic one, whose new name references the patroness of New Spain. The portrait would have been displayed in the home of her parents, where it not only recalled the presence of an absent child but also served as a visible marker of the family’s piety, wealth, and social prestige.