Colonial School. Mexico. 17th century. “Our Lady of Guadalupe from Extremadura” Oil on canvas. The Santa Clara Colonial Museum in Bogota has a painting of the Virgin Mary similar to this one. One of the images that was most venerated by the Spanish conquistadors was that of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Extremadura, a 12th century carving belonging to the series of black Madonnas made at this time in Western Europe. The troops that landed in the Americas brought numerous religious images with them as talismans to protect them from danger. As this Madonna was one of the most venerated since the Reconquest, devotion to Our Lady of Extremadura arrived to Latin America in the form of engravings, altarpieces and canvases in which the Virgin of Miracles was depicted, and were known as “verdaderos retratos” (true portraits). 111 x 76 cm.