Since 2004 the colonial mansion known as the Palace of Iturbide in Mexico City's historic center has served as a cultural center of Banamex (the National Bank of Mexico). Each year they have several free art exhibits in the palace, and I have written about quite a few of them here on this blog.
I make it a point on each trip to Mexico City to see if there is a new exhibit in the palace. At this time they are showing 17th and 18th century religious paintings selected from the collection of the Church of La Profesa just down the street from the palace. Quite frankly, I do not find religious art from the colonial era to be that interesting. Nevertheless, I went inside to see the exhibit. Two of the most famous painters from colonial Mexico are well represented... Cristóbal de Villalpando and Miguel Cabrera.
A number of these paintings have been recently cleaned and restored so their colors were bright, instead of the dark, dreary tones that I associate with old paintings hanging in churches.
Here are a few of the works in the exhibit...
"Jesus in the Court of Herod"
"The Virgin of the Stairs"
"The Death of St. Francis Xavier"
"St. Peter and St. Paul"
"Prayer in the Garden"
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