Isabel de Cisneros (1666 – ca. 1714) was a female Criollo colonial painter born in the colony of Quito (Ecuador). She was the daughter of Miguel de Santiago, one of the most famous colonial Quito School painters. Often referred to as Isabel de Santiago, she however identified herself as Cisneros, a name she inherited from her mother.

Life

Isabel was born in 1666 to Miguel de Santiago, a mestizo, and Andrea Cisneros y Alvarado, who was Spanish. She trained and worked in her father's workshop. She married Captain Antonio Egas and together they had five children.[1] Isabel was the only member of her immediate family to outlive her father, who was pre-deceased by her mother Andrea, her sister and her three brothers. Isabel gained prominence in her father's studio after the departure of her father's gifted student, Nicolás Goíbar.

Works

Copy of Portrait of Juana de Jesús, original: Isabel de Cisneros. Ca. 1703, Convent of Santa Clara, Quito, Ecuador.

She specialized in oil paintings of the childhood of the Virgin and of the baby Jesus, adorned with flowers and animals.[2] It is speculated that she would have worked alongside her father on the Milagros de La virgen series (1699-1706) while she worked in his studio. One of her most famous works is a portrait of Juana de Jesús (1662-1703), a sister of the Poor Clares, which was painted after the nun's death.[3] A contemporary writer, Francisco Javier Antonio, complimented the likeness, attributing its accuracy to Isabel de Cisneros having met Juana de Jesús several times.[4] This work is the only securely attributed painting to her, but unfortunately it has not survived, and only a copy survives at the convent of Santa Clara in Quito.[1] Juana "looks incredibly Quiteña with a long nose, a subdued smile, a narrow face, and delicate hands".[5]

References

  1. ^ a b McIntyre, Kellen (2007). Women and Art in Early Modern America. Brill. p. 413. ISBN 978-9004153929.
  2. ^ Pimentel, Rodolfo Pérez. "Miguel de Santiago". Diccionario Biografio de Ecuador. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
  3. ^ Paniagua Pérez, Jesús (2022-12-04). "La segunda opción: mujeres en los claustros quiteños del siglo XVII". Arenal. Revista de historia de las mujeres. 29 (2): 471–501. doi:10.30827/arenal.v29i2.15507. ISSN 2792-1565.
  4. ^ Maria, Santa. Vida prodigiosa de la venerable virgen Juana de Jesus de la Tercera Orden de Penitencia de Nuestro Seraphico Padre San Francisco (in Spanish). Рипол Классик. ISBN 9785872750222 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ Noboa, Fernando Jurado (1995-01-01). Las quiteñas (in Spanish). Dinediciones. ISBN 9789978954140 – via Gppgle Books.
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