Paintings of richly dressed statues of the Virgin Mary were among the preferred themes in Spanish and Peruvian 17th- and 18th-century painting. This installation reflects the gradual process of adoption and adaptation of this iconography by Indigenous and Mestizo artists in Viceregal Peru in the creation of Marian images. In this process of acculturation, the artists responded to their artistic sensibilities and syncretic evocation of the revered Inca deity Pachamama or Mother Earth.

Originally identified as a 17th-century Peruvian work, Our Lady of Loreto was acquired by NOMA in 1970. The monumental canvas, referred to as Our Lady of Lima in acquisition document files, was acquired then as an important example of art from the Viceroyalty of Peru (1542–1824), a political subdivision of the Spanish Empire. 

The cone-shaped dress and the hieratic expression of the Virgin are predominantly found in Spanish and South American Marian icons. Consequently, Our Lady Loreto was featured in international museum exhibitions and publications dedicated to Spanish Viceregal art.  In 2014, however, the art historian Maria Giulia Aurigemma documented a copy of Our Lady of Loreto in the sacristy of the Church of San Bernardo alle Terme in Rome signed by Carlo Saraceni (1579–1620), not only securing the attribution of the work at NOMA, but also its date to 1600 while the Venetian artist was active in Rome.

For the first time, Our Lady of Loreto will be exhibited as an Italian baroque painting, which, alongside Spanish works served as prototypes for this genre in 17th-century Peru disseminated mainly by missionaries also trained in the art of painting. Similar works from NOMA’s extraordinary collection of Peruvian viceregal art also explore the legendary stories of the Marian icons that inspired the creation of these paintings in Europe and the Americas.