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Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Oil on canvas by Miguel Cabrera, c.1750. The definitive portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651–1695), poet, playwright, and scholar — the foremost literary figure of colonial New Spain and the first published feminist of the Americas. Sor Juana is depicted in the habit of a nun of the Order of Saint Jerome, surrounded by books, a writing desk, and a bookcase indicating her vast library. As she died in 1695 and Cabrera was born c.1695, this is a posthumous portrait based on earlier images. Held at the Museo Nacional de Historia, Chapultepec Castle, Mexico City.

Scholarly Significance

Miguel Cabrera's posthumous portrait of Sor Juana — canonical image of New Spain's greatest intellectual; colonial Latin American Baroque anchor.

Notes

  • ·Posthumous portrait — Sor Juana died 55 years before Cabrera's birth year c.1695; the c.1750 date places this ~55 years after her death.
  • ·The portrait served to secure Sor Juana's canonical status in Mexican national cultural memory.
  • ·Her library (estimated at 4,000 volumes) is referenced in the bookcase; she was forced to give it up in 1693 under pressure from the Bishop of Puebla.