As with most artists in
New Spain during the late Baroque period, Juan Rodríguez Juárez produced
religious art. He also followed the trend of painting portraits of high officials, such as Viceroy
Linares and the local nobility. These works followed European models, with symbols of rank and titles either displayed unattached in the outer portions or worked into another element of the paintings such as curtains. Rodríguez Juárez painted "an extraordinary self-portrait, symptomatic of the changing role of the artist in the colony in the eighteenth century." An early set of
casta paintings (c. 1715) is attributed to him; they are in a private collection at
Breamore House, Hampshire, England. Separate canvases show Mexican racial mixtures in a hierarchical order, with Spanish-Indian mixtures coming first, followed by Spanish-African mixtures, then further permutations of racially mixed couples and offspring. They are as follows: Spaniard and
India produce a
Mestizo; Spaniard and Mestiza produce a
Castizo; Castizo and Spanish woman produce Spaniard. Spaniard and
Negra produce a
Mulato; Spaniard and Mulata produce a
Morisca; Spaniard and Morisca produce an
Albino. From Mulato and Mestiza produce a
Torna atrás. From
Negro and
India,
Lobo ("wolf"); From
Indio and Loba produce a crinkly haired (
grifo) "Hold-Yourself-In-Midair" (
tente en el air); From Lobo and
India produce a
Torna atrás ("throw back"); From Mestizo and
India produce a
Coyote; Mexican Indians; Otomí Indians en route to the fair; Barbarian Indians (
Indios Bárbaros). == Gallery ==