c. 1740-1760

Fragment from a Biombo: "You Must Not Anger at the Vice of a Friend"

Artist/maker unknown

This fragment is one of four from a Mexican biombo, or folding screen. Mexican artists modeled such screens on Japanese examples, which were introduced into New Spain in the late sixteenth century and became one of the most popular decorative art forms. Each panel of this biombo depicted a moral proverb from the book Theatro moral de la vida humana (Moral Theater of Human Life) by the Dutch artist Otto van Veen (c. 1556-1629), published in Spanish in 1669.

This particular fragment is based on a print from Van Veen's book and illustrates the proverb "You must not anger at the vice of a friend." The scene shows a father leading his children to a window, representing the part of the proverb that exhorts us to accept the vices of our friends in the same way that a father must love and guide his children regardless of their flaws.