�y��vlog

Shipments of fresh-from-the-easel pictures were regularly leaving the New World for Spain, many carrying the phrase “Pinxit Mexici” — “Painted in Mexico” — as a gauge of value and a point of pride.

But sometimes theater will come to you, as it does in many of the 130 pictures, large and small, that make up “Painted in Mexico, 1700-1790: Pinxit Mexici” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“Golden Kingdoms,” at the Getty Center through Jan. 28, is a bona fide blockbuster of pre-Columbian bling; “Painted in Mexico, 1700-1790: Pinxit Mexici,” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art through March 18, assembles an exhilarating bounty of altarpieces and portraiture.

“Painted in Mexico, 1700-1790: Pinxit Mexici” is a remarkable curatorial achievement, one of the most memorable exhibitions of the year.

The Virgin and Child enthroned under an arcade—with S. Lorenzo, St. Louis, S. Ercolano, and S. Costanzo, standing: On the step of the throne is inscribed 'Hoc Petrus de Chastro Plebis Pinxit.'