Durango and Queretaro, Mexico

This map highlights the colonial city of Queretaro, the most likely location for the creation of the painting of St. James. Madeline Farnsworth donated the painting to Wheaton College's Permanent Collection a couple of years before she died. My guess is that there are a combinatin of three things that contributed t her not remembering the specifics about the acquisition of this painting of St. James. The first being her old age: Madeline donated this painting in 2002, meaning that she was 88 years old at the time. Assuming she acquired the painting in 1950 for general math purposes, this means that she had bought this painting over 50 years prior. Second is the fact that she traveled so much in her lifetime. I think that a joint venture between her love for travelling and also likely business-related travel contributed to her not remembering because she quite simply had travelled to so many places that she just didn't remember. The third contributing factor is that she was an avid collector. She had bought hundreds of objects throughout the years, so many that she couldn't remember. 

However, upon donating it to Wheaton in 2002, Madeline did write that she bought it in "a colonial city north of Mexico City." While on its own this piece of information seemed too vague to be useful, I used this in conjunction with the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art's curatorial expertise that the painting was most likely to have come from either two cities: Durango or Queretaro. Now, these seemed too far apart to generalize a certain area. 

I looked at maps of city concentration at the time the Spanish Conquistadors came to Mexico in 1521. Because the Aztec people had been living in the area, cities were already established and then consequently overrun or built over by the Spanish. The Aztec people's cities are all concentrated within the southern Gulf of Mexico. So, upon colonizing the land, the Spanish came here to the heart of the Aztec Empire and expanded outwards. Queretaro is nearest to this Spanish Colonial center. I conjecure that the paintng came from here for two reasons. First because it is the closest north to Mexico City and a generalization of "north of Mexico City" would insinuate some type of proximity as a way finding tool. Secondly, it is "more colonial" than Durango. It was settled first and so its people were longer enveleoped in the tradition of Santiago de Copostela. Santiago de Compostela, or Saint James in English is also known as The Moorslayer. 

Saint James is half mythical, half real character, said to be one of Jesus' original 12 apostles. His ppopularity refers to him leading an army which defeated the Moorish Muslims and bringing Chrisianity to the Spaniards. At the time of colonization, the religious Cult of St. James flourished as Catholicism spread and gained control. St. James also became the patron saint of Spain. Because St. James is beleived by the Spanish to be one of Jesus' twelve apostles, it is likely that the other 11 paintings the art dealer held in Queretaro were depictions of the other 11 apostles of Jesus. 

Image Sources: 

Map of Mexico, E A Deane Holdings Ltd., GeoAtlas.com

Text Sources:

Spanish Colonial Arts Society, Museum of Spanish Colonial Arts

http://www.map-of-mexico.co.uk/map-of-queretaro.htm