According to Donna Pierce (1990), the date of the mosaic (1539) is the earliest ever recorded on a work of art in New Spain. Many of the artists working in the school were of high social rank in the Aztec Republic. It is possible that the artist who created this work was Don Diego de Alvarado Huanitzin, tlatoani (governor) of Tenochtitlan.

Missionaries founded schools of arts, for example at San Jose de los Naturales, where native techniques were preserved. At this school under Pedro de Gante's direction, there was a workshop in which native artists created feather mosaics. Amantecas (the artist who works in feathers), followed the design from European prints to produce many religious paintings and altar decorations, such as the one above depicting the legend of St. Gregory the Great, the 16th Century Pope. After one of his assistants prays for a sign, he receives a vision of the crucified Christ and the instruments of the Passion on the altar. The thirteen discs within the cross provide a syncretic detail. In the pre-Hispanic world these disks represented chalchihuite, a precious stone associated with water. It was said that St. Gregory himself interpreted them as symbols of the Old and New Testaments. According to Pierce (1990), the Franciscans were especially loyal to the Mass of St. Gregory. In New Spain, during the early years of conversion some clergy felt that Indians were incapable of reason and thus they could not receive any sacraments. It was not until 1537, that Paul III proclaimed the rationality of the Indians and the right of the clergy to administer the sacraments to them. This painting, with its Eucharistic theme, was probably employed as friars sought to teach new Christians about the Holy Communion.