About the Artist

Miguel Mateo Maldonado y Cabrera (1695-1768) was an indigenous Zapotec painter during the Vice Royalty of New Spain, today's Mexico.

He was born in Antequera ( today's Oaxaca, Mexico), and moved to Mexico City in 1719, where he entered the workshop of José Ibarra. He may have also studied under the Rodríguez Juárez brothers.

Cabrera was a favorite painter of Archbishop Manuel José Rubio y Salinas, whose portrait he twice painted, and of the Jesuits, which earned him many commissions.

His work was influenced by Bartolomé Estéban Murillo and the French painting of his time.

Cabrera created both religious and secular art, painting portraits of viceroys and other aristocracy as well as numerous religious subjects. He is most famous for his "Casta" paintings, which illustrate and classify mestizaje (racial mixing) in Mexico’s colonial society. He is also known for his posthumous portrait of the seventeenth-century poet Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, as well as one of the first portraits of San Juan Diego.

In 1753, he founded the second Academy of Painting in Mexico City and served as its director.

Cabrera was influential in the propagation of the icon and faith in the Virgin of Guadalupe. In 1756 he created an important early study of the icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe titled "Maravilla americana y conjunto de raras maravillas observadas con la dirección de las reglas del arte de la pintura" ("American marvel and ensemble of rare wonders observed with the direction of the rules of the art of painting", often referred to in English simply as American Marvel).

In 1760, Cabrera created The Virgin of the Apocalypse, commissioned by José Riaño, which describes the chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation. It is believed that Cabrera drew inspiration from Rubens for its creation.

Cabrera, himself of indigenous and Spanish ancestry, was one of the most important painters during his time, with a versatile skill set that allowed him to create works on wood, canvas, copper, and directly on walls.

His versatility extended into other artistic disciplines as well, including designing funeral pyres for his patron Archbishop Rubio y Salinas and for the queens Elizabeth Farnese and Amalia of Saxony. He also created altar screens for the church of San Francisco Xavier in the Jesuit college of Tepotzotlán.

In the 19th century, the writer José Bernardo Couto called him "the personification of the great artist and of the painter par excellence; and a century after his death the supremacy which he knew how to merit remains intact."

His remains are interred at the Church of Santa Inés in Mexico City.

His works are found in private and public collections around the world, including Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Denver Art Museum, and the Museum Nacional de Historia, Mexico City, among others.


biographical sources include La Cámara del Arte, The National Museum Of Mexican Art, Denver Art Museum, others

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