Ignacio Maria Barreda

Ignacio María Barreda was an eighteenth-century painter from New Spain, self-identified as university graduate with a Bachiller in philosophy.

Toussaint believed he might be the official painter for the Seminario de San Camila,[1] His 1777 single-canvas casta painting is an exemplar of this eighteenth-century genre of secular art.

[3] The painting, now in the Real Academia Española de la Lengua, Madrid, is one of the few signed and dated casta paintings, with a cartouche at the bottom reading: "These castes of New Spain were painted (upon the request of Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Rafael Aguilera y Orense) by his great friend and art enthusiast Don Ygnacio María Barreda y Ordones, Bachiller en Philosophy, in Mexico [City] on 18 February 1777."

In this casta painting, there are 16 groupings of parents and offspring, the usual number in most sets, with indios bárbaros or Chichimecas in a separate cell at the bottom.

The caption identifies the nearly naked adults and children as Mecos and Mecas whose numerous castes are alike.”[Mecos y Mecas, cuias Castas, aunque muchas, todas son semejantes.]