Benton to Show Viceregal Art

Saint Francis Xavier, Apostle of the Indies, 18th century. Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation

Pomona College's Benton Museum of Art has organized its first show of Spanish Colonial art. "Gilded, Carved, and Embossed: Latin American Art 1500–1800" includes about 25 paintings and sculptures from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, and Brazil. Many are loans from the eclectic Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation, which collects Viceregal art, contemporary Japanese art, and digital art.  

New to the Benton Museum's collection is a painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe by 18th-century Mexico City artist Pedro López Calderón. Formerly in a private collection in Spain, the Guadalupe was offered by Jaime Eguiguren Art & Antiques, Buenos Aires. Eguiguren has an essay on the artist and the painting.

Another new acquisition is a painted statuette of Saint Benedict of Palermo, a Franciscan monk whose parents were African slaves in Sicily. 

"Gilded, Carved, and Embossed: Latin American Art 1500–1800" opens Feb. 22 and runs through July 23, 2023.

Pedro López Calderón, Our Lady of Guadalupe With a Male Donor, 1730s. 16 x 10 3/4 in. Benton Museum of Art, Walter and Elise Mosher Memorial Fund 

Saint Benedict of Palermo, 18th century. 27 1/2 in. high. Benton Museum of Art, Walter and Elise Mosher Memorial Fund