Content Area: Early Europe and Colonial Americas, 200–1750 C.E.

18

Art of New Spain: Spanish Colonies in the Americas

TIME PERIOD: c. 1500–1820

ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: The culture, beliefs, and physical settings of a region play an important role in the creation, subject matter, and siting of works of art.

Learning Objective: Discuss how the culture, beliefs, or physical setting can influence the making of a work of art. (For example: Juárez, Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo)

Essential Knowledge:

■Baroque art can be found in New Spain.

■Baroque art still has a basis on classical formulas, but also has an interest in dynamic compositions and theatricality.

ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: Cultural interaction through war, trade, and travel can influence art and art making.

Learning Objective: Discuss how works of art are influenced by cultural interaction. (For example: Frontispiece of the Codex Mendoza)

Essential Knowledge:

■There are the beginnings of global commercial and artistic networks.

■Art in New Spain shows a willingness to absorb European, Asian, and indigenous American influences.

■Art in New Spain has a generally Catholic character similar to the art of southern Europe.

ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: Art making is influenced by available materials and processes.

Learning Objective: Discuss how material, processes, and techniques influence the making of a work of art. (For example: Circle of the González family, Screen with the Siege of Belgrade and hunting scene)

Essential Knowledge:

■The period is dominated by an experimentation of visual elements, i.e., atmospheric perspective, a bold use of color, creative compositions, and an illusion of naturalism.

ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: Art and art making can be influenced by a variety of concerns including audience, function, and patron.

Learning Objective: Discuss how art can be influenced by audience, function, and/or patron. (For example: Circle of the González family, Screen with the Siege of Belgrade and hunting scene)

Essential Knowledge:

■There is a more pronounced identity of the artist in society; the artist has more structured training opportunities.

ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: Art history is best understood through an evolving tradition of theories and interpretations.

Learning Objective: Discuss how works of art have had an evolving interpretation based on visual analysis and interdisciplinary evidence. (For example: Juárez, Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo)

Essential Knowledge:

■Baroque art is studied in chronological order and by geographic region.

■There is a large body of primary source material housed in libraries and public institutions.

■Traditional art history material favors European art; the art of New Spain is often sidelined. This material is being presented here in a more comprehensive approach that highlights the interconnections between the Americas and Europe.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Following the news that Columbus landed in what is now the Bahamas in 1492, European powers immediately set upon a mission of conquest and colonization. Spanish and Portuguese adventurers occupied vast expanses of territory in an area we today call Latin America. The great Native American civilizations of the Aztecs and Inkas rapidly fell before the more technologically advanced and disease-bearing Europeans.

Within a short time, local populations were made to work for their European overlords, artists included. Some Native Americans married into the established Spanish hierarchy and produced children called mestizos.

The Spanish extracted much the New World had to offer: silver, gold, and new crops, like potatoes and corn. They also established a world wide trading empire in which ships slowly trekked across the Pacific connecting Mexico with Asia. These voyages, called the Manila Galleon, enabled trade vessels to make the four-month journey unimpeded. The Mexican market could boast Asian spices, ceramics, silks, ivory, and other precious items long before they became available in the colonial United States. Artistic life became enriched by the contact of East and West layered onto a Native American population.

Instability in Europe during the Napoleonic wars, however, inspired Spain’s colonies to seek independence. As quickly as Spain gained her territories, she lost them to very capable generals like Simón Bolivar and José de San Martin. By 1822 most of Latin America was a patchwork of independent states; colonial rule was over.

Patronage and Artistic Life

The Spanish brought Roman Catholicism, a religion rich in imagery, to the New World. Ecclesiastical patrons sponsored an astonishing degree of high quality religious works. Unlike English colonists, the Spanish were not reluctant to use native artists. Works from New Spain combine Roman Catholicism with Native American traditions in a pictorial landscape that often uses new materials from Asia. Concurrently, English Protestants in what is now the United States limited their artistic interest to portraits.

In the beginning, the Spanish brought over late medieval artistic conventions that were often combined with provincial Renaissance works. Soon thereafter efforts were made to establish local schools that were inspired by the more current Baroque style. Many Mexican portraits show men dressed in the latest Madrid styles to prove they had aristocratic sensibilities.

The first center of European art in the Americas was established in Cusco, Peru. Spanish painters taught local Quechan and mestizo artists the newly imported style. In addition to religious images, patrons also were interested in portraits, as well other subjects current in European painting like historical paintings of battle scenes and Arcadian landscapes.

Painting in New Spain

Religious painting of the colonial Spanish era is generally marked by a combination of Old and New World skills. Spain contributed the oil technique and Catholic imagery to American painting. Native artists, working within their own traditions, showed less interest in European painting formulas such as perspective. They favored a flattened surface with earthen tones. This is particularly evident in the works of the Cusco School.

Many works of art were created anonymously, in service of religion rather than in service of the fame of the artist. Today it is oftentimes impossible to establish the name of the artist because the style of a given school is so closely united.

The Manila Galleon brought trade from Asia, and new materials as well, so it is not unusual to see works of Latin American art that use ivory, silk, or ceramics.

Frontispiece of the Codex Mendoza, Viceroyalty of New Spain, c. 1541–1542, ink and color on paper, Bodleian Library, Oxford University (Figure 18.1)

Figure 18.1: Frontispiece of the Codex Mendoza, c. 1541–1542, ink and color on paper, Bodleian Library, Oxford University

Content

■The main scene depicts the founding of Tenochtitlán; below is the conquest of Colhuacan and Tenayucan.

■Aztecs were told to found their city at the spot where an eagle was perched on a cactus growing from a rock—today this is the symbol used on the Mexican flag.

■An eagle landing on a cactus at the intersection of the two waterways commemorates the division of Tenochtitlán into four quarters.

■Enemy temples are on fire; Aztec warriors carry clubs and shields.

■Skulls represent sacrificial victims.

■There is a small representation of the Templo Mayor above the eagle.

Function

■The book was intended as a history of the Aztecs for Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire—although he never received it.

■Named after Antonio de Mendoza, viceroy of New Spain.

Context

■The book was created 20 years after the Spanish conquest.

■The book depicts Aztec rulers and daily life in Mexico to a European audience.

■The book uses glyphs created by Aztec artists that were later annotated in Spanish.

Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 81

Web Source http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/codex-mendoza-1542/

■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: National Symbols

–Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People (Figure 20.4)

–Golden Stool (Figure 27.4)

–Quick-to-See-Smith, Trade (Figure 29.12)

Master of Calamarca (La Paz School), Angel with Arquebus, Asiel Timor Dei, 17th century, oil on canvas, National Art Museum, La Paz, Bolivia (Figure 18.2)

Figure 18.2: Master of Calamarca (La Paz School), Angel with Arquebus, Asiel Timor Dei, 17th century, oil on canvas, National Art Museum, La Paz, Bolivia

Content

■Latin inscription: Asiel, fear of God.

■The angel is depicted with an arquebus (a form of rifle) instead of a traditional sword.

■An arquebus is a state-of-the-art weapon brought by the Spanish to the New World.

Form

■The elongated hat with feathers is a feature of dress of Inkan nobility.

■Indigenous people favored gold embroidered on fabrics.

■Military poses are derived from European engravings of military exercises.

■The drapery is of a seventeenth-century Spanish-American aristocrat; rich costuming.

■The angel appears in an androgynous stance.

■Mannerist influence in the stiffness of the figure and dance-like pose.

Function

■Probably one in a series of angel drummers, buglers, standard bearers, and holders of swords.

Context

■A relationship is expressed between this kind of image and the winged warriors of pre-Columbian art.

■The work may have originated in the region around Lake Titicaca, in the Collao region of Peru.

■The Master of Calamarca may have been José López de los Ríos, a Bolivian painter.

■The feathered hat may reference Andean royalty.

■Guns were symbols of power and dominance over native American peoples and their beliefs.

■The painting is related to Spanish-American writings that allude to angels coming at the Last Judgment well-attired with feathered hats and carrying guns.

Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 90

Web Source https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-6134023/the-angel-with-the-arquebus

■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Guardian Figures

–Nio guardian figure (Figures 25.1c, 25.1d)

–Lamassu (Figure 2.5)

–Jayavarman VII as Buddha (Figure 23.8d)

Circle of the González family, Screen with the Siege of Belgrade and a hunting scene, 1697–1701, tempera and resin on wood inlaid with mother-of-pearl, Brooklyn Museum, New York (Figures 18.3a and 18.3b)

Figure 18.3a: Circle of the González family, Screen with the Siege of Belgrade, 1697–1701, tempera and resin on wood inlaid with mother-of-pearl, Brooklyn Museum, New York

Figure 18.3b: Circle of the González family, Screen with a hunting scene, 1697–1701, tempera and resin on wood inlaid with mother-of-pearl, Brooklyn Museum, New York

Form

■Only known example of an artwork that combines biombos and enconchados.

Function and Patronage

■The screen was commissioned by José Sarmiento de Valladares, viceroy of New Spain.

■Displayed in Viceregal Palace in Mexico City.

■The screen was meant to divide a space into smaller areas; similar to Japanese screens in function.

■Only half of the screen is illustrated in the official image set; the other half is in Mexico City.

Context

■Two faces of the screen: one has a hunting scene, and the other has a war scene (the Siege of Belgrade).

■The hunting scene is suited to an intimate space for small receptions.

■The hunting scene is based on tapestry designs for the Medici, a great family of art patrons in Renaissance Italy; the design is derived from prints exported from Europe.

■The war scene is more suited for a grander room of political importance.

■The war scene depicts the contemporary event of the Great Turkish War (1683–1699); a Dutch print was used for inspiration.

■The war scene illustrates a scene of Hapsburg power.

■Lacquer-style imported works from Japan influenced the decorative floral elements and the landscape motifs.

Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 94

Web Source https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/207337

■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Screens

–Korin, White and Red Plum Blossoms (Figure 25.4a, 25.4b)

Miguel González, Virgin of Guadalupe (Virgen de Guadalupe), based on original Virgin of Guadalupe, Basilica of Guadalupe, Mexico City, 1698, oil on canvas on wood inlaid with mother-of-pearl, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California (Figure 18.4)

Figure 18.4: Miguel González, Virgin of Guadalupe (Virgen de Guadalupe), based on original Virgin of Guadalupe, Basilica of Guadalupe, Mexico City, 1698, oil on canvas on wood inlaid with mother-of-pearl, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California

Form

■The Virgin Mary is surrounded by four roundels that tell the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

■In the roundels there are depictions of her appearance to Juan Diego, and the moment the Virgin’s image is revealed on his tunic.

Materials

■Brocade on Virgin’s robes made of enconchados.

■Enconchado paintings often include ornate frames inspired by Japanese Nanban lacquer work.

■Enconchado paintings have a luminous and vibrant color patterning that enhance the other-worldly effect that this object represents.

Context

■The painting describes an event in which Mary appeared to Native Americans on a hill called Tepeyac, a shrine sacred to a pre-Columbian goddess.

■In 1531 Mary ordered a Native American convert, Juan Diego, to tell the local archbishop to build a sanctuary on this site; Mary addressed Juan Diego in Nuhuatl, his native tongue.

■Mary made the hilltop flower, and Juan Diego brought the flowers to the archbishop; Juan Diego’s cloth revealed the Virgin’s image.

■The Virgin of Guadalupe is the most revered symbol in Mexico and the patroness of New Spain.

■In Guadalupe images, Mary always stands on a crescent moon surrounded by sunrays with clouds behind her.

■An eagle perched on a cactus at bottom center is a symbol of Mexico today.

■Cf. Revelations 12:1: “A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.”

■Image was in demand: many made for export around New Spain.

Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 95

Web Source https://collections.lacma.org/node/222405

■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Images of Mary

–Notre Dame de la Belle Verriere (Figure 12.8)

–Lippi, Madonna and Child with Two Angels (Figure 15.3)

–Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George (Figure 8.8)

Attributed to Juan Rodríguez Juárez, Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo, c. 1715, oil on canvas, Breamore House, Hampshire, United Kingdom (Figure 18.5)

Figure 18.5: Attributed to Juan Rodríguez Juárez, Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo, c. 1715, oil on canvas, Breamore House, Hampshire, United Kingdom

Form

■A Spanish gentleman married an indigenous woman and produced a mestizo, who is carried on the back of a servant.

■Many Africans and Indians are rendered with Southern European features: slim noses, curly hair, almond-shaped eyes.

Function

■Spanish colonists commissioned these works to be sent abroad to show the caste system of the New World.

■Not considered art objects but illustrations of ethnic groups.

Context

■Panel from the first known series of casta paintings; may not have been a completed set.

■Spanish social hierarchy with the European ancestry at the top; sixteen different gradations on the social scale.

■Spanish blood linked to civilizing forces; wearing lavish costumes.

■Africans and Indians are rendered with respect; showing harmony and mixing of the classes.

Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 97

Web Source https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/207338

■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Meeting of Cultures

–Quick-to-See-Smith, Trade (Figure 29.12)

–Bandolier bag (Figure 26.11)

–Bichitr, Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings (Figure 23.9)

Content Area: Later Europe and Americas, 1750–1980 C.E.

Miguel Cabrera, Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, 1750, oil on canvas, Museo Nacional de Historia, Castillo de Chapultepec, Mexico (Figure 18.6)

Function

■Many portraits survive, but all images derive from a now-lost self-portrait.

■Painting was done for her admirers 55 years after Sor Juana Inés’s death.

Content

■Portrayed seated in her library surrounded by symbols of her faith and her learning.

■She wears the habit of the religious order of the Hermits of Saint Jerome nuns of Mexico City; the habit includes the escudo—a framed vellum painting.

■Painting may have been inspired by the image of Saint Jerome seated at a desk.

Figure 18.6: Miguel Cabrera, Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, 1750, oil on canvas, Museo Nacional de Historia, Castillo de Chapultepec, Mexico

Context

■Sor Juana Inés (Sister Juana Agnes), a child prodigy (1651–1695).

■She was a criollo woman who became a nun in 1669.

■A feminist culture survived in Mexican convents, where privileged nuns could live in comfort with servants and households.

■Sor Juana was a literary figure who wrote books that were widely read; she also wrote poetry and theatrical pieces, and maintained a great library.

■Sor Juana was instrumental in giving girls an education in a male-­dominated world.

Content Area Later Europe and Americas, Image 99

Web Source http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sorjuana/

■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Portraits

–Mblo (Figure 27.7)

–Portrait of Sin Sukju (Figure 24.6)

–Smith, Lying with the Wolf (Figure 29.20)

VOCABULARY

Biombos: folding freestanding screens (Figures 18.3a and 18.3b)

Casta paintings: paintings from New Spain showing people of mixed races (Figure 18.5)

Enconchados: shell-inlay paintings; tiny fragments of mother-of-pearl placed onto a wooden support and canvas and covered with a yellowish tint and thin glazes of paint (Figure 18.4)

Escudo: a framed painting worn below the neck in a colonial Spanish painting (Figure 18.6)

Mestizo: someone of mixed European and Native American descent (Figure 18.5)

Viceroy: a person appointed to rule a country as the deputy of the sovereign

SUMMARY

Spanish colonists combined European Baroque traditions with Native American labor and Asian imports to create a multi layered artistic experience. Patrons sponsored a wide range of subjects: religious images, portraits, painted screens, landscapes, and historical episodes. While many of the artistic formulas remain European in inspiration, the appeal of art from this period is its ability to wed disparate artistic experiences into a coherent whole.

PRACTICE EXERCISES

Multiple-Choice

Questions 1–3 refer to the image below.

1.The formal quality of this work shows the influence of

(A)Byzantine art in its extensive use of gold

(B)Gothic art in its angularity and frontality

(C)Mannerism in its awkwardness of poses

(D)Rococo art in its light-hearted humor

2.This image of an angel differs from other angels in other contexts in that

(A)the body is covered in drapery

(B)this face looks human rather than divine

(C)this angel is carrying a gun rather than a sword

(D)there is no suggestion of an episode from the Bible being depicted

3.The materials used to create this work show the influence of

(A)Aztec sculptures

(B)Mayan frescoes

(C)Aztec feather work

(D)Spanish painting

4.The Codex Mendoza was created for

(A)the Aztecs as an official account of their history

(B)the Aztecs as a record of their civilization before the conquest by Spain

(C)Antonio de Mendoza as a keepsake to remember his time spent in Mexico

(D)Europeans to show them this history of the Aztecs

5.The Virgin of Guadalupe by Miguel González shows the influence of Asian art in its

(A)use of exotic materials, such as mother-of-pearl

(B)subject matter, which included the Chinese shrine at Guadalupe

(C)Chinese calligraphy identifying the images

(D)abstract formulae for depicting the human body

Long Essay

Practice Question 1: Comparison

Suggested Time: 35 minutes

This painting is attributed to Juan Rodríguez Juárez and is called Spaniard and Indian ­Produce a Mestizo. It was painted in 1715 and is an oil on canvas.

Many works of art illustrate cultural mores, stereotypes, and institutional biases, and comment on a contemporary situation.

Select and completely identify another work of art that represents cultural mores, stereotypes, or institutional biases. You may select a work from the list below or any other relevant work.

Identify the contemporary audience for each work.

Describe cultural mores, stereotypes, or institutional biases represented in each work.

Using at least one visual element, analyze the meaning of the cultural mores, stereotypes, or institutional biases of that work.

Using at least one contextual element, analyze the meaning of the cultural mores, stereotypes, or institutional biases of that work.

Discuss at least one difference in how each work communicates its message about a cultural mores, stereotype, or institutional bias.

Head of a Roman patrician

Pink Panther

ANSWER KEY

1.C

2.C

3.D

4.D

5.A

ANSWERS EXPLAINED

Multiple Choice

1.(C) The stiff and awkward nature of the pose shows influence from Mannerist artists.

2.(C) It is not unusual for an angel to carry a weapon, like a sword. It is highly unusual for him to carry a gun. In traditional images, angels wear robes and are covered in drapery. Although they can be depicted acting out a biblical story, they are also commonly represented without a narrative. They can be depicted as either human or divine, or both.

3.(D) This work is an oil on canvas, the same technique as that used in Spain.

4.(D) The purpose of the Codex Mendoza is to show Europeans the life and history of the Aztec people.

5.(A) Exotic materials were brought from Asia through a shipping route called the Manila Galleon. Spanish artists were particularly attracted to the widespread use of mother-of-pearl, as seen in this screen.

Long Essay Rubric

Task	Point Value	Key Points in a Good Response
Select and completely identify another work of art that represents cultural mores, stereotypes, or institutional biases.	1	■Head of a Roman patrician: Marble, c. 75–50 B.C.E. (Since the title is given in the directions, you may not use it in your identification. You may also not use the term Roman as a cultural designation because that word is given in the title as well. Two other identifiers are required.) ■Jeff Koons, 1988, glazed porcelain, American, contemporary art; Since the title is given in the directions, you may not use it in your identification. Two other identifiers are required.
Identify the contemporary audience for each work.	2	For Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo: ■Spanish colonists commissioned works to be sent abroad to show how the caste system of the New World works. For Head of a Roman patrician: ■Portraits housed in family shrines, honoring deceased relatives. ■Funerary altars were adorned with portraits, busts, or reliefs and cinerary urns. For Pink Panther: ■It has an American or an international audience in museums, galleries, and private collections.
Describe cultural mores, stereotypes, or institutional biases represented in each work.	2	For Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo: ■Spanish social hierarchy with the European ancestry at the top; 16 different gradations of social scale. ■Spanish blood linked to civilizing forces; wearing of lavish costumes. ■Indians shown in harmony with the Spanish intervention in the New World. For Head of a Roman patrician: ■Realism of the portrayal shows influence of Greek Hellenistic art and late Etruscan art and thus kinship with the values expressed in those civilizations. ■Busts are mostly of men, often depicted as elderly; the wisdom of patrician men is praised and glorified. For Pink Panther: ■It shows attitudes toward the objectification of women. ■The world of kitsch is elevated to high art. ■It reflects a commentary on celebrity romance, sexuality, commercialism, stereotypes, pop culture, and sentimentality.
Using at least one visual element, analyze the meaning of the cultural mores, stereotypes, or institutional biases of that work.	1	For Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo: ■Indians are rendered with respect; shows ­harmony and mixing of the classes. ■Children treated with affection and love by the European fathers. ■Indians rendered with Southern European features: slim noses, curly hair, almond-shaped eyes. For Head of a Roman patrician: ■Bulldog-like tenacity of features; overhanging flesh; deep crevices in face. ■Features show experience and wisdom—traits Roman patricians would have desired. For Pink Panther: ■Artificially idealized female form: overly yellow hair, bright red lips, large breasts, pronounced red fingernails; overtly fake look. ■Pink Panther, a cartoon character derived from a series of American movies; tender gesture.
Using at least one contextual element, analyze the meaning of the cultural mores, stereotypes, or institutional biases of that work.	1	For Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo: ■Spanish are seen as a civilizing force in the New World. ■Mixing of cultural traditions brings peace and harmony. ■The Spanish recognize the existence of a caste system in the New World. ■Indians take on a European code of behavior and dress, a willingness to mix with the Spanish. For Head of a Roman patrician: ■Extremely realistic face, called a veristic portrait. ■Wax portrait masks were traditionally used in funeral processions of the upper class to commemorate their history. ■Features may have been exaggerated by the artist to enhance adherence to Roman Republican virtues. For Pink Panther: ■It was part of a series called Banality at a 1988 show in the Sonnenbend Gallery in New York. ■Critiques the banality of much of popular culture; modern art; women’s objectification; the introduction of kitsch into high art; the questioning of what high art really is.
Discuss at least one difference in how each work communicates its message about a cultural more, stereotype, or institutional bias.	1	There are many differences. An obvious choice would be materials. Oil on canvas is a conventional format for European artists and expresses a cultural superiority over Native American art forms. Marble suggests permanence and monumentality. Porcelain is considered a lower type of artistic material, further contributing to Koons’s commentary.