First Painting in Rome of Our Lady of Guadalupe Preserved in Fourth-century Church

The image was painted “around the year 1550” by the Jesuit Giovanni Battista Fiammeri, an artist active in Rome who, on the occasion of the Jubilee of 1600, decorated the entire church of St. Vitale.

A compelling hypothesis about the painting’s origin

Although there are no documents that conclusively certify it, the parish priest supports a compelling hypothesis: The Jesuit Fiammeri painted the picture based on a sketch of the miracle made by Spanish missionaries upon their return to Rome, after learning about the events that occurred on Tepeyac Hill two decades earlier.

One detail reinforces this interpretation. At the bottom of the painting, “below the Virgin, there is a small caravel depicting the ship on which they traveled to Mexico,” the priest explained. This is an unusual element in later iconography of Our Lady of Guadalupe, but it was commonly used in the context of the first contacts between the New World and the Holy See.

Whatever the precise origin of the model used by Fiammeri, it is certain that this image predates by several decades the other representations of the Virgin of Guadalupe preserved in Rome, which date from the mid-17th century, almost a hundred years after the apparitions, the 500th anniversary of which will be celebrated in 2031.

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First Painting in Rome of Our Lady of Guadalupe Preserved in Fourth-century Church

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This fact confers on the painting in St. Vitale a singular value as a testament to the early European reception of a devotion that, over time, would become one of the pillars of the Americas’ religious identity.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

As a journalist, Victoria Cardiel has specialized in social and religious news. Since 2013, she has covered the Vatican for various media outlets, including Europa Press and Alfa and Omega, the weekly newspaper of the Archdiocese of Madrid.