In Francisco de Zurbarán’s 1639 painting “St.Francis,” St. Francis of Assisi gazes at the sky as sunlightbegins to cut through a wall of dark clouds.

Until the end of October, St. Francis will also gaze at theceiling of the Meadows Museum.

Zurbarán’s piece is one of 52 paintings thatcomprise the museum’s “Painting a New World”exhibit of Mexican colonial art dating from the period of 1521 to1821.

“This is the most ambitious undertaking of its kind evertaken outside Mexico,” said Dr. Edmund Pillsbury, director ofthe museum. “There have been many smaller shows done all overthe country . . . but this is the first one of this size devotedentirely to this type of art.”

The exhibit, the largest collection of Mexican colonial art everassembled outside Mexico, covers the viceregal period of thecountry’s art history, the three centuries betweenSpain’s colonization in the 16th century and its declarationof independence in 1821.

“[The exhibit]’s a good way of understanding thesources and the origins of Mexico’s art,” Pillsburysaid. “It’s not just indigenous to Spain —it’s indigenous to itself.”

The Meadows Museum provides a distinctive location for viewingthe emergence of Mexico’s culture in the colonial paintings:across the hall from the “Painting a New World” exhibitis the museum’s collection of Spanish paintings, one of thelargest collections outside of Spain.

“This is the ideal place to see them,” said Dr. MarkRoglán, curator of the museum. “The people who comecan begin to make bridges between Old Spain and New Spain,”as Mexico was known during its status as a Spanish colony.

For many of the Mexican pieces on display, the Meadows Museum istheir second stop. Much of the art had been part of a similarexhibit at the Denver Art Museum, which negotiated the funds forthe core of pieces now on display, before making the journey toSMU.

In what Pillsbury described as a “truly internationaleffort,” the Meadows Museum then secured the loans of morepieces from both public and private sources, ranging in locationsfrom Mexico to Florence, Italy. And on Sept. 1, six weeks after theDenver Art Museum’s show closed, the Meadows Museum openedthe exhibit to the public.

In the five weeks since the exhibit’s opening, the turnouthas been “very encouraging,” Pillsbury said. “Ithink it’s helped reach out to make a bridge to the growingLatino community.”

According Dr. Adam Herring, a professor of art history and aspecialist in Latin American art, making that connection is animportant facet of the exhibit.

“For one thing it’s beautiful,” he said,”and it’s part of our shared heritage here in thishemisphere. It’s rare to see so many Latin American piecesgathered together in this country.”

The themes of religion and family are predominant in this periodof art and the development of that heritage, Herring said.

More than half of the pieces in the exhibit have religioussubjects, including Zurbarán’s “St.Francis.”

Many of the others are family-related pieces, including a seriesof 12 paintings by José de Paez, which are of the castatradition.

In this style of painting, an artist attempted to document theblending of the races occurring in Mexico by picturing two parentsof different races and their biracial child, one painting for eachof the different combinations.

“[The casta paintings] were a phenomenon of onlyMexico,” Roglán said. “They are an encyclopedia,a tour-de-force by an artist to record the mixing of theraces.”

Paintings such as those of Paez are evidence of Mexico havingbeen a crossroads of different peoples during this time, Pillsburysaid, in which natives from surrounding continents joined to formwhat has become Mexican culture.

Pillsbury believes the exhibit provides people the chance to seethat culture’s role in Texas history, a chance for long-timeTexans to examine the origins of their own home.

“Texas is considered a new frontier,” Pillsburysaid, “but people can come here to see the roots and how deepand fascinating they can be.

“In Mexico there was influence from all these differentplaces: Asian, European, African. So then when people ask‘How do you define a Texan?’ you can know thathe’s made up of all these ingredients.”

Those interested in examining those roots have until Oct. 31 toview the “Painting a New World” exhibit.

Admission is free for SMU students, faculty, and staff with anSMU ID.

Meadows Museum is open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 11a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

On Monday and Tuesday, visits are by appointment only, asthose days are reserved for tours, classes and professionalgroups.