The Sacred Heart represents the physical heart of Jesus Christ and is a symbol of his love for humanity. Executed on copper, this composition includes God the Father with the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and his archangels who venerate the Sacred Heart in the highest heaven. A popular icon, especially in eighteenth-century Mexico, the flaming heart encircled by a crown of thorns and surmounted with a cross which are instruments of Christ’s Passion, shines with divine light. The cult of the Sacred Heart was fervently promulgated by the Jesuits in the late seventeenth century. According to narratives, French nun Marguerite-Marie Alacoque of the Visitation Convent in Burgundy is said to have experienced several visions in which Christ appeared and instructed her to initiate a devotion to his Sacred Heart. Indeed, in one of these revelations Christ held out his heart to her. The pious Alacoque began to keep notes about her visions which lasted from 1673 to 1690. These were eventually found by the Jesuit chaplain of her convent who began to publish them in 1684. A later publication by the French Jesuit Joseph de Galliffet in 1726 followed and included illustrations which helped spread the cult across Europe.1
The iconic image of the Sacred Heart gained numerous devotees in Mexico where paintings for private and public devotion were extremely popular by the eighteenth century. Painters such as Miguel Cabrera who was a favorite of the Jesuits, and Juan Patricio Morlete Ruíz were known to have created similar images, also on copper using this spiritual theme which appealed to a deeply emotional piety of the time.
M.J. Aguilar, Ph.D.

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1 French Jesuit Joseph de Galliffet’s book, De Culto Sacro Sancti Cordis Dei, was published in 1726. See, M. M. Edmonds, “French Sources for Pompeo Batoni's 'Sacred Heart of Jesus' in the Jesuit Church in Rome,” in The Burlington Magazine, Nov., 2007, Vol. 149, No. 1256, Italian Art (Nov., 2007) 785-789.