Portrait of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. Miguel Cabrera. c. 1750 CE Oil on canvas.

• Function
  • Many portraits survive, but all images derive from a now-lost self-portrait
  • Painting was done for her admirers 55 years after Sor Juana Ines’s death.
• Content
  • Portrayed seated in her library surrounded by symbols of her faith and her learning
  • She wears the habit of the religious order of the Hermits of Saint Jerome nuns of Mexico City; the habit includes the escudo–a dreamed vellum painting
  • Painting may have been inspired by the image of Saint Jerome seated at a desk
• Context
  • Sor Juana Ines, a child prodigy
  • She was a criollo woman who became a nun in 1669
  • A feminist culture survived in Mexican convents, where privileged nuns could live in comfort with servants and households
  • Sor Juana was a literary figure who wrote books that were widely read she also wrote poetry and theatrical pieces, and maintained a great library
  • Sor Juana was instrumental in giving girls an education in a male-dominated world.