Portrait of Sor Juana de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe 1797

This is a portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz painted by Domingo Ortiz. The composition centres on the figure of Sor Juana, arranged symmetrically against a dark backdrop. The subtle modelling of light and shadow gives the nun a gentle volume that radiates outward. The artist pays careful attention to the play of textures. The sumptuous fabrics of Sor Juana’s habit are richly described, and the gold trim and the pearls give a tangible sense of weight and presence. The Virgin on the medallion and the infant Jesus are depicted with a more diffuse light. These figures challenge fixed meanings, blurring the lines between the earthly and the divine. The portrait destabilizes the traditional power dynamics of portraiture by imbuing her with both religious authority and intellectual agency, thus challenging conventional expectations of women in the seventeenth century. Art becomes a site of ongoing interpretation, and the subject's layered identity continues to invite us to decode the underlying structures of representation and meaning-making in art.