The Prado Museum exhibits the imprint of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Spain with 70 unique works.

The Prado Museum presented So Far, So Close. Guadalupe from Mexico to Spain , an exhibition that brings together some 70 images of the Virgin of Guadalupe from museums in Spain and Mexico , and demonstrates the intense connection between the viceroyalty and the metropolis over the centuries.

The works included in the exhibition have come primarily from cathedrals, churches, convents, and private collections throughout Spain, from 1654 to 1821, the date of Mexican independence, and up to the present day.

Today, the Mexican Virgin of Guadalupe is present in "at least 19 cathedrals and we estimate that there are around 1,000 images scattered throughout all the autonomous communities (Spanish regions), a sign of the devotional and artistic exchange between Spain and New Spain," said Dr. Jaime Cuadriello , of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, one of the curators of the exhibition.

According to Cuadriello, one of the objectives is " to recover a forgotten chapter of the close artistic, social, and cultural relationship between the Viceroyalty and Spain."

The relationship was so intense that, in fact, the works of Mexican Juan Correa, "the most prolific and renowned painter, are no longer in Mexico, but in Granada, Seville, and Valladolid" (Spain).

Most of them were sent before 1821 by Indians, viceroys, bishops, members of religious orders, officials, and families associated with transoceanic trade and mining—people who wanted to share their devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe with their families, congregations, or hometowns.

Only eight "essential" pieces for the exhibition have arrived from Mexico , on loan from the Franz Meyer Museum, the Pérez Simón Collection, and the National Museum of Art.

So Far, So Close includes works by prominent New Spanish painters such as José Juárez, Juan Correa, Manuel de Arellano, Miguel Cabrera, and the Spanish Velázquez and Zurbarán, highlighted the director of the Prado Museum, Miguel Falomir.

Asked about the debate on the need to "decolonize" European museums , both the curators and the director of the Prado agreed that, in Falomir's words, "there is nothing better for decolonizing than showing history as it was."

It is, he explained, "a matter of standardizing the work produced by artists from both sides of the Atlantic to put an end to the prejudices that led the Prado to part with its small but exquisite collection of viceregal art."

Cuadriello asserted that "there's no need to decolonize a reality that was completely shared ; what we need is to value shared reality."

"The debate on decolonialism is a political debate , and here we present an artistic debate," added the other curator, Paula Mues, of the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico.