Mexican Folk Art Tin Nicho — Nuestra Señora de San Juan de los Lagos

A hand-wrought pressed tin nicho framing a sepia devotional print of Nuestra Señora de San Juan de los Lagos, the Marian advocation venerated at the basilica in Jalisco, Mexico. The print depicts the crowned Virgin in her bell-shaped gown atop a silver ovate base, flanked by two cherubs bearing the Latin banner "Mater Inmaculata, Ora Pro Nobis." Below, the Gothic-script caption reads "Nuestra Señora de San Juan de los Lagos, venerada en su santuario."

The frame is built from stamped and punched sheet tin in the traditional Mexican folk vernacular — a rayed half-round crest at the top suggesting a gloria or halo of light, paired side scrolls, and floral rosette borders worked by hand punch around all four sides. The deeply oxidized surface, sepia-toned image with characteristic foxing, and hand-wrought construction place this firmly in the lineage of devotional tinwork produced across northern Mexico and the borderland communities of southern New Mexico through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A working object of household devotion, the kind that hung in a corner of the kitchen or above a bedroom door for generations.

The cult of Nuestra Señora de San Juan de los Lagos traces to a 16th-century miracle attributed to a small cornstalk-paste image in the village of San Juan Bautista Mezquititlán, Jalisco. By the 19th century she was among the most widely venerated Marian images in Mexico, second only to Guadalupe, and her photographic image — like the one mounted here — was reproduced and distributed through the basilica's pilgrimage trade. Tin nichos of this type were the domestic counterpart to the formal church retablo: an affordable, hand-built shrine carrying the venerated image into the home.

CONDITION

Fair to Good with heavy age. The tin shows uniform oxidation, surface rust, and paint flaking on the verso. The frame is slightly bent at one corner. The mounted photographic print shows pronounced foxing and toning across the field, consistent with age and humidity exposure but legible throughout. More recent picture-wire hanging hardware has been added to the reverse.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• Overall: 24 3/4" H × 16 3/8" W × 1/4" D
• Construction: Pressed and punched sheet tin, mounted photographic print
• Subject: Nuestra Señora de San Juan de los Lagos
• Origin: Mexico
• Era: Late 19th to early 20th century