Page 7 - Guadalupe of Mexico in Spain

Section 05. Concealing and displaying the image for

worship

Virgin of Guadalupe
Unknown authorship
Oil on canvas
After 1730
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Because of its status as a revealed icon, La Guadalupana became the object of a peculiar mode of
worship. The Virgin was permanently veiled, housed on an altarpiece and covered by a pane of glass with
curtains in the manner of an iconostasis or tabernacle, more in the style of the eastern Church. Only
during the most solemn ceremonies were the brocade curtains drawn back to allow the image to be
viewed, though the effect they produced was one of a mysterious halo. Liturgical music reinforced this

sensory alternation between “concealment and display”. In the depictions of the eponymous Virgin of
Extremadura, there are also frequent trompe-l’oeil depictions of curtains with gilded fringes and braids.