At the beginning of his reign in 1516, Charles I, the young monarch of Spain, adopted "Plus Ultra" as his motto, a Latin phrase that translates into English as “further beyond”. His shield, with the inscription around Hercules’s columns, represented the entire Spanish Empire for at least three centuries. The King, his descendants and representatives governed a vast and complex territory in continuous expansion under this emblem that was composed of numerous Spanish kingdoms distributed among three continents: America, Asia and Europe.
"Plus Ultra" accompanied the redefinition of geographical borders; delineating economic and commercial routes, promoting all types of exchanges, trade, influences and miscegenation. The original challenge for navigators to go beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, which in the XV century was considered to be the limit of the world, resulted in the gradual construction of a very wide cultural territory which, from our contemporary historical point of view, is interpreted as dynamic and in continuous transformation. It is a space/time where artistic work responded to a world with changing borders and the high expectations of a very diverse population in Castile, Aragon, Flanders, New Spain, Guatemala and the Philippines.
As a contribution to this historical overview, the Museo Arocena is pleased to present this broad representative sample of art in the Spanish kingdoms between the XV and XVIII centuries. In the first section of this exhibit, the main geographic zones forming the largest empire of the time are presented. In the second section, exchange routes are explored that connected these territories through art. The works of art found in this exhibit here are from the collection owned by the Belausteguigoitia Arocena family, founders of the museum in the City of Torreon, Coahuila.
I. The Spanish Kingdoms: Aragon
In the XII century, the wedding between Princess Petronila of Aragon and the Count of Barcelona, Ramón Berenguer IV, began a complex territory known as the Crown of Aragon. During the following centuries, the new territory, composed of the kingdom of Aragon and the county of Barcelona, expanded until it extended to the kingdoms of Valencia, Majorca, Sicily, Malta, Sardinia and Naples, a region that covered the entire southern area of the Italian peninsula. The distribution of these territories left a more important space in the center: the Mediterranean Sea.
Aragon is essential for understanding artistic exchanges between the Iberian and Italian peninsulas during the XV century, a moment when the Renaissance style extended throughout Europe. In Spain, this style began in Valencia and Barcelona by way of artists who formed part of the Italian influence with local traditions such as a special taste for altarpieces. An example of this is Los gozos de María (The Joys of Mary) that can be viewed in this section.
The Arocena collection also has samples of another relationship: the one between Aragon and Flanders. In the XV century, an exchange of painters between both regions established a new taste for naturalist painting that led Aragón to bring the Crown into the Renaissance.
Altarpiece of The Joys of Mary (Ca. 1420)Museo Arocena
A Valencian Altarpiece
In the XIV century, Juan Ruiz, the Archpriest of Hita, wrote his Book of Good Love in which he narrated Mary’s seven joys– the Annunciation, the Nativity of Jesus, the Adoration of the Magi, the Resurrection of Christ, the Ascension of Christ to Heaven, the Pentecost and the Coronation of the Virgin-, passages that form the structure of many Spanish altarpieces. The topic, introduced in Valencia by the painter Pere Nicolau in 1401, was very popular in the entire territory of the Crown of Aragon during the XV century. As a crossroads between the Italian and Iberian Peninsulas, Valencia gave rise to artwork that brought back to life the influence of Florentine painting, especially that done by Giotto, and it was merged with local preferences.
Calvary (Ca. 1480)Museo Arocena
The Arrival of the flemish taste
The trip made by the Valencian Lluís Dalmau to Flanders in 1431 brought about a taste for Flemish elements in Aragonese art. This Calvary exemplifies a moment of transition between international gothic and northern styles: the faces become more expressive; the golden backgrounds were substituted by a rich natural landscape and the compositions, previously very simple, became multitudinous. The great number of people increases the dramatic sense of the scene, which is complemented by two angels flanking the figure of Jesus Christ.
Saint Cosme (Ca. 1495) by Perea MasterMuseo Arocena
An unknown painter
Cosme and Damian are known as the physician saints and they can be easily recognized by the box of ointment that is held in their hands as their symbol. In the III century, both physicians disseminated Christianity by providing free medical attention.
The Maestro de Perea was given that name since there were no documents to reveal his real name. He was an artist essential to the understanding development of the Spanish Flemish style found in the territory of the Crown of Aragon. Gothic, Flemish and Italian elements are fused in Saint Cosme, as can be observed in this painting. With this mixture of styles, an artistic movement is created that stands out due to the ornamentation present in the brocade of the clothing, as well as in the repoussé found in the background of the work.
Altarpiece of Holy Family Members (Ca. 1550)Museo Arocena
Altarpieces in Spain
Since the XV century, the use of altarpieces was of special importance in Spain as a medium that used images to disseminate didactic stories.
This combination brings an uncommon topic to life: the extended family of Jesus. The main tableau shows the legend of Saint Anne’s three husbands, the last of whom was Joachim, with whom she conceived the Virgin Mary. From her previous marriages, she had two daughters: Mary of Clophas and Mary Salomae, who appear with their families in the lateral tableaux of this altarpiece. Five of Jesus’ disciples are part of this lineage.
Saints Emeterius and Celedonius / Saint Roch (Ca. 1550)Museo Arocena
Calahorra Saints
The iconography of the fragments of this altarpiece allows us to identify its origin and estimate its age. In the first one, the saints indicate their origin, since they were Roman martyrs who died in the city of Calahorra, on the border between Navarre, Aragon and Castile, where devotion was widespread.
The plague that battered Aragon in 1497 and 1507 made the veneration of a patron saint that cured diseases popular in that zone: Saint Roch. According to the legend, he fell ill with the plague and was cured by a dog named Melampo, who appears with him on the altarpiece.
Saint Sebastian (16th Century)Museo Arocena
Saint Sebastian
This saint was one of the first martyrs of Christianity. He was a Roman soldier condemned to death for defending his faith. As punishment, in the III century, the Diocletian emperor ordered him to be killed by archers. Although he did not die in that manner, beginning in the XV century, he was generally characterized as suffering that torture.
Sebastian is one of the saints most painted in the history of art since his image offers artists an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to paint his nude male body.
The holes found on the reverse side of this work indicate a possible linkage to a tree trunk that, together with the martyr’s arrows, would have completed the scene.
II. The Spanish Kingdoms: Castile
Before dying, King Ferdinand of Leon I divided the land conquered by him among his three sons: Alfonse who inherited the kingdom of Leon; García, who obtained Galicia; and Sancho, his first born, who was given a county that became a kingdom in the XI century: Castile. After centuries of battles against Al-Andalus, the Muslim Empire to the south of the Peninsula, as well as the conquest of other Christian kingdoms, this territory reached across most of the Iberian territory. By the XIV century, the Crown included the kingdoms of Castile, Toledo, Leon, Galicia, Cordoba, Murcia, Jaen and Seville. In 1469, Queen Elizabeth I of Castile and the king of Aragon, Ferdinand II, were married and they united the two largest crowns in the Spanish territory. With the power that accompanied this marriage, they conquered Granada, the last Muslim bastion, as well as the Christian kingdom of Navarre. In that manner they created the borders of today’s Spanish territory.
Over time, the artistic tradition of Castile is the product of that intense re-shaping. The interaction among the groups that inhabited these territories produced a lasting influence in each one of them. This manifested itself in art, language and gastronomy, among other cultural expressions, in which we detect a Muslim influence in the conquered provinces. In the same manner, the profound presence of the Christian tradition is also evident.
Castilian art and culture were radically transformed with the influence of a region that is incorporated into the XVI century empire with the arrival of Charles I of Spain, who is also Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire: Flanders.
Saint Peter's Regret (16th Century)Museo Arocena
Saint Peter's Regret
Although there is no evidence in the Gospel concerning the presence of Saint Peter in the flagellation of Jesus Christ, this iconographic episode has been very popular in the territory of the Spanish Crown since the XVI century. This is founded in the environment of the Counter Reformation when the Catholic Church defended the sacraments against Protestant attacks against them, especially the sacrament of confession. Thus, the image of Saint Peter’s Regret for having denied Christ became popular as a simile for suffering sinners who go to their confessor to redeem their sins. The scene presents the importance of art as a didactic tool for the dissemination of the Catholic Church’s ideas.
Saint Quentin Martyr / Virgin with Child and Saint Peter (16th Century)Museo Arocena
Saint Quentin Martyr
Saint Quentin was a Roman martyr who was tortured in different manners: he was tied to a rack with two long nails crossing his body and ten tacks under his fingernails. This cruel scene is represented in an environment that presents XVI century Spain: slashed doublets, skirts and headpieces that were the fashion of the time.
Saint Luis Bishop of Tolosa (16th Century)Museo Arocena
Saint Luis de Tolosa
Luis de Tolosa, second son of King Charles II of Naples and Sicily, was in line for succession to the throne. During battles of that kingdom with the Crown of Aragon, he was made prisoner on the Iberian Peninsula, where he maintained contact with the Franciscan Order. After returning to Italy, and upon the death of his older brother, he was postulated as heir, but his religiosity caused him to abdicate to his younger brother when he took his Franciscan vows. Testimony of that rejection is the crown and scepter found at his feet.
III. The Spanish Kingdoms: Flanders
The marriage of the daughter of the Catholic Kings, Joanna I ‘The Mad’ to Philip I ‘The Handsome’ of the House of Hapsburg, reached across the borders of Spain to northern Europe. The son of both, Charles I, inherited the peninsular territories along with Flanders, the region located within what is now known as Belgium.
The cities of Bruges, Mechelen, Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels were some of the most outstanding artistic centers of this zone. The commercial intersection created by its international ports, its economic boom, the high density of its population and the higher than average urban concentration, brought about a new artistic sensitivity, characterized by consolidation of the use of oil painting, the use of brilliant colors, great details in depiction, an empirical encounter with linear perspective and the diversification of painting from religious subject to other genres such as landscapes, portraits of citizens or even still life paintings.
After the Protestant Reformation, the Low Countries, recently incorporated to the Spanish Catholic monarchy, were divided: the Northern provinces rebelled, starting an 80-year war that ended in the middle of the XVII century with their independence. This division created two artistic schools: the Flemish school, which included Flanders and the Spanish Low Countries; and the Dutch school, found in the Northern provinces.
Virgin with child (16th Century)Museo Arocena
Mechelen "dolls"
This sculpture produced in Flanders from 1475 to 1530 is recognizable due to its stereotypic form: round face, heavy eyelids and small eyes, abundant and clean curls. Clothing falls heavily into angled folds. One of the main centers for the production of these sculptures was the City of Mechelen, where “dolls” were produced, small sculptures out of walnut, oak or poplar, rich polychrome sculptures used for home altars. These models even reached America and became the focus of new cults, including Our Lady of the Conquest, in Puebla. Its survival is notable, since the successive waves of protestant iconoclasts destroyed a great number of them.
Family portraits of Jean-Baptiste d'Hane and Marie Anne de Nieulant (16th Century) by Anselmus Van Hulle [Hebbelynck] (1601 - 1674)Museo Arocena
A Family Portrait
The individuals in the painting lived in the Flemish city of Ghant, in the southern Lower Countries, part of the Spanish Empire. They wore black clothing, highly valued in a region that produced dyed woolen cloth. Jean-Baptiste was part of the Flemish Council; the letter he holds in his hand proves his royal ties. His wife, Marie-Anne Nieulant, born in 1625 and married in 1653, is accompanied by their son, Jean-Baptiste, who wears a hat with a turned-down brim with a quilted front band that was used to protect the heads of children who were beginning to walk.
IV. The Spanish Kingdoms: New Spain
With the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors to the American coasts in the XV century, vast new territories became a part of the Spanish empire. As they advanced within the territory, they built cities, traded and exchanged goods and, with time, reshaped the vast cultural territories found within the possession of the vice kingdom of New Spain.
The New Spanish society and its artistic production had distinguishing characteristics as the product of the cultural complexity and diversity of its inhabitants; the changing geographical borders and the systems of representation that, in the XVI century, combined indigenous and European traditions and work. New Spain was the obligatory trans-Pacific route towards the western colonies from Acapulco and there was an influx of routes from the trans-Atlantic route that sailed from Seville. These constant displacements brought about a rich mosaic of cultural expression that produced miscegenation, the fusion and richness of traditions, ideas, beliefs and artistic expressions that were present in the territory of New Spain.
“Santiago Matamoros” (16th Century)Museo Arocena
Un santo conquistador
Santiago el Mayor suele representarse de diferentes maneras, las más comunes son como apóstol, como peregrino o como caballero defensor de la religión. La leyenda piadosa del siglo XII narra que, montado en su corcel blanco y portando armadura, animó y auxilió al ejército de Ramiro I en su victoria frente al ejército musulmán. Históricamente, la construcción, representación y funcionalidad de Santiago como símbolo coincidieron con los objetivos políticos y religiosos del imperio español. Al irrumpir su ejército en América, la figura de Santiago Matamoros fue sustituido por Santiago Mataindios, continuando así con su patronazgo como adalid contra los infieles, como una extensión espacial y temporal de la reconquista peninsular.
Esta escultura de procesión, es decir, destinada a llevarse en andas, debió blandir una espada y portar algún estandarte. De esta manera, pudo haber sido llevada como símbolo religioso y militar en las campañas de expansión hacia la región norte de la Nueva España, y presenciar la ocupación en alguno de los espacios geográficos que recibieron los nombres de Nueva Vizcaya, el Nuevo Reino de León, la Nueva Extremadura y Nuevo Santander. Estas regiones, en su conjunto, corresponden a los actuales estados mexicanos de Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Coahuila, Durango, Chihuahua y Sinaloa; además del estado de Texas en los Estados Unidos de América.
The Burial of Christ (18th Century) by Miguel Cabrera (1695 - 1768)Museo Arocena
The Burial of Christ
Christ is accompanied by John the Apostle and the women of Galilee, among who are found his mother, Mary, who holds his body, and Mary Magdalene, who kisses his hand. Miguel Cabrera represented this passage from Passion to the inside of a stone tomb with a view of the landscape at the background. Due to the topic and lobe-shaped form, this painting must have been part of a full iconographic representation of the life of Christ, in which other episodes of passion are included and which are mainly narrated in the Gospels of Luke and John.
Monstrance (Ca. 1780)Museo Arocena
Silverwork in New Spain
The exploitation and profit from silver mines in New Spain were strategically important to support the Spanish Empire. In 1527, the first silver supervisors or inspectors began working in Mexico City and ten years later the first orders (ordenanzas) were issued for the organization of the silver-makers guild. As a good for exchange and for consumption, silver-making was subject to strict rules of the control under the law of precious metals and for payment of the tax known as the “royal fifth”, or a 20 per cent tax.
Boat-shaped Censer (Ca. 1720)Museo Arocena
Candlesticks with figures of Saint Michael the Archangel (Ca. 1780)Museo Arocena
Tithing plate with figure of the Holy Child of Atocha (Ca. 1780)Museo Arocena
V. The Spanish Kingdoms: Command of the Captaincy in Guatemala
Since its foundation in 1542, the City of Santiago de Guatemala -nowadays Antigua, Guatemala- was the capital of the territory that extended through a great part of Central America, today’s state of Chiapas in Mexico and the border with Oaxaca. It was administered by the Royal Court of Guatemala and headed by a governor who, at the same time, held the position of general captain. The General Captaincy maintained continuous artistic and commercial trade with New Spain, a viceroyalty on which it depended administratively although it had relative autonomy.
The flow of Guatemalan exports is notorious, sent by way of the Royal City route -San Cristóbal de las Casas, at present-, Tehuantepec, Antequera in the Valley of Oaxaca and Tehuacán to artistic and cultural centers in New Spain such as Mexico City and Puebla. Prestigious religious imagery was shipped from Santiago de Guatemala, well-known for carved wood, gilded and polychrome, reaching its splendor in the XVII and XVIII centuries. The vitality of the commercial and cultural artistic exchanges between the capitals of the empire is due to the power of New Spain, which controlled Spanish and European imports that arrived through Veracruz.
Piety (16th Century)Museo Arocena
Between Guatemala and Philippines
The Virgin embraces the lifeless body of Christ on her lap after removing him down from the cross. Her face fully reflects the drama of the Passion with the same realism as the disarranged position of her son. A XVII century Christian artistic practice was to foster devotion by representing scenes related to Mary’s seven sorrows or anguishes. The preference for local wood and ivory imported from the Philippines, in the rough or carved, is a characteristic of this sculpture, possibly Guatemalan, and which, due to its dimensions was probably used in a domestic environment.
Lord of Esquipulas (18th Century)Museo Arocena
Lord of Esquipulas
At the feet of the Crucified Christ, the Virgin Mary and John the Apostle create the scene known as the Calvary. This painting represents a vera efigie, a “living scene” of the sculptural group in carved and polychrome wood, done at the end of the XVI century by the recognized sculptural school in Santiago de Guatemala for the Sanctuary of Esquipulas, a municipality located in the today’s Department of Chiquimula in Guatemala. The model refers to the black Christ with three nails, long hair and a pointed beard, with his head inclined on his chest and his eyes closed. The cross has a spiral profile, covered with the shoots of grapevines, as a symbol of the Eucharist.
I.The Routs: The Spanish-Flemish road
A new system of painting created in the Low Countries in the decades of the 1420s brought together pictorial elements of diverse Northern European origin. Starting in the XV century, artists traveled between Flanders and the Iberian Peninsula and influenced local painting in a special manner which, together with the traditions of each region, developed into new schools such as the Flemish Spanish School.
This artistic exchange occurred more frequently in Castile, Leon and Valencia. Important authors from countries known today as Belgium and Holland were well known and their work was collected by the nobility. In the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile, the dissemination of this model was associated with the international gothic style. In these places, the greatest part of the work originated in Northern Europe and other local work came under its influence. Most tableau paintings in the Iberian Peninsula formed part of large altarpieces that were characterized by work in polychrome that was stamped in gold leaf, in addition to the use of tempera and an introduction of oil painting.
Ecce Homo / Head of Christ (16th Century)Museo Arocena
Ecce Homo
The iconography of this image of Christ crowned by thorns corresponds to the passage from the Passion narrated in the Gospel of John. After having been lashed, Christ is presented by Pontius Pilate to the crowd with the phrase “Behold the man”. This expression is conserved in Latin as Ecce Homo, as a reminder of the real human and divine condition of the Son of God. Pictorially, the front view of the face, the narrow framing of the head surrounded by the three powers and the greenish and translucent flesh tones correspond to the Flemish model created by the Dutch painter, Dirk Bouts (1420-1475).
Man of Sorrows (16th Century)Museo Arocena
Man of Sorrows
Christ wears a crown of thorns, drops of blood flow down his forehead and they mix with the tears running down his cheeks. With his hands tied, on his right palm there is a wound from the Crucifixion. It is an image that synthesizes the pain of the Passion and not the narration of a particular episode. The inscription in Latin on the halo is translated as “look and see if there is any pain like my pain”, taken from the Book of Lamentations. Under the Flemish influence, the background in gold leaf materialized the presence of the divine, representing celestial time and space.
Portraits of a Lady and a Gentleman (1578)Museo Arocena
A Marriage Portrait
These people, distinguished members of high society, wear a headdress and a hat, black garments, gold chains and starched collars with frills according to the etiquette of the Spanish court. The inscription in Latin that is translated as “in the year of their age” is proof that they are twenty three years old and that the paintings were done in 1578. The composition, with only three-quarters of the head and the expressive dignity of the faces is related to the Italian tradition that included painters such as the one born in Utrecht, Antonio Moro (1516/1521-1576), who painted members of the aristocracy and European nobility.
Portrait of a Gentleman (16th Century)Museo Arocena
A Divided Empire
This person, who was proud of himself, was probably a distinguished citizen who belonged to the rising bourgeois class in a city such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Delft or Haarlem. By 1648, with the separation of the Spanish Empire from these provinces, Protestantism gained strength in detriment of the power of the Catholic Church among residents of the region of Flanders at that time. This, together with the relative modesty of the Orange Court created a market in which artists stopped working exclusively under official commission. The austerity and sober dignity derived from Protestant taste was then considered to be important virtues to be emphasized in the portrait.
II. Routes of Images
In the XV century, a resource emerged that changed the way images were transmitted, including their speed and scope: engravings. The new forms of reproduction, as well as an increase in the number of copies that could be reproduced, allowed more and more people to have access to images previously available only to temples and palaces. Trade routes opened the road to the circulation of these prints that were much more transportable and affordable than paintings done for the bourgeoisie at that time. In this manner, along with precious metals and conquistadores, the black and white images travelled to regions that knew nothing about the culture of those who populated the territories at that time.
Some works of art in the Arocena collection have paintings and engravings of artists known as the Great Masters as a precedent. The work of those painters served as models in other times and territories that were enriched when reinterpreted later. Such is the case of the work by Albrecht Dürer, Quentin Massys, Anthony Van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens, artists who marked the beginning of a complex route of images that were adapted to the printed media replicated by painters in Spain, Italy, Germany or American kingdoms.
After Albrecht Dürer The two paintings presented here reflect local interpretations of the composition created by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), the most important engraver of the German Renaissance. While the Italian version exactly reflects the details present in wood engravings, the Spanish tableau reproduces a small part of the same, simplifying the elements and reorganizing the main iconography to adapt it and center it on the Holy Trinity.
Although he was also recognized as a painter, especially for his self-portraits, Dürer had an unprecedented influence due to the mass circulation of his engravings throughout Europe and even in America, centuries after having been created.
This work’s background is found in late German gothic sculptures known as Christus in der Rast or Pensive Christ. From those sculptures Dürer took his model for making the engravings that, after crossing the Atlantic, became an important artistic model in New Spain. After a short time, the Spanish realms in America produced sculptures with combined technology – European and American – of notable quality and expression, such as the Señor de la piedra fría (Lord of the Cold Stone) which is venerated in the Canary Islands. This work must be understood as a synthesis of the physical and moral pain of the Passion.
After Quentin Massys
The distribution of the four figures in this scene provides a long trajectory of transformation and adaptation of the original which was done in 1520 by the Flemish artist, Quentin Massys (1466-1530). The delicate details were simplified by the engravers of the era; the most important of which was Maerten de Vos (1532-1603), until it converges in the conventional typology derived from prints in the Arocena collection.
After Peter Paul Rubens The painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) received a commission for the original image of this oil in 1617 destined for the main altar of the Jesuit Church in Antwerp. The painting narrates a series of miracles attributed to the first Jesuit missionary in Asia: the resurrection of a man, the healing of a blind man and the destruction of the idols in Goa and those in other eastern provinces.
After the conversion of the painting to engraving, exactly as is shown in the British Museum of London, the scene reached other territories and on occasions it was inverted due to the printing process, as happened in this engraving found in the Arocena collection.
After Anthony Van Dyck This painting reinterprets a work created by the Flemish painter, Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641), a painting influenced by the visual language of Rubens, his teacher from the City of Antwerp.
The composition was brought back to life by the engraver, Schelte Adams Bolswert, who made at least three different designs from the original image, which incorporated corrections in each one of them. The British Museum of London’s stamp, as well as the origin of the painting in the Arocena collection, corresponds to the first series, since it still has an error by the engraver, who forgot to paint the hand used by John to touch the shoulder of the Virgin Mary in the original Van Dyck.
III. The Transatlantic Route: Seville
The Spanish Empire deployed a complex network of commercial exchange among the Spanish kingdoms and it designated the Port of Seville as the only starting point for the route to America. At the time, sea traffic was reserved exclusively for Spanish subjects and the Crown designated the Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) as the maximum agency responsible for trade from 1503 to 1717, when it was transferred to the Port of Cadiz, which had similar functions. Ships crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Santo Domingo and they later went to Havana to finally disembark in Veracruz. From there, they traveled over dry land to take products to Mexico City.
Trade between Europe and America consisted of the export of agricultural products (wine, oil, wheat), manufactured products (paintings, paper, wrought iron, quicksilver or mercury); and the importation of precious metals (gold, but moreover silver) and dyes (mainly cochineal and indigo). On the other hand, cultural objects were also traded: books, engravings, art works and musical instruments. Finally, over a period of more than two centuries, numerous people from Seville dedicated to artisanal and artistic work left and some formed a part of entourages of viceroys and archbishops; while others traveled by their own means.
Allegory of Sculpture (Ca. 1640)Museo Arocena
Allegory to sculpture
The young woman with tools of the trade as a sculptor seems to suspend the blow of the mallet on the chisel to attract the spectator’s attention. As a symbol of beauty, a sculpted head in marble inspired by classical Ancient times is what he is sculpting. It is a painting on the art of sculpture, an allegory that seeks to represent a concept using the human figure and, as such, it could form part of an iconological program on the arts. In addition to the allegorical content, it is a portrait, since the author selected a common person as a model, giving the painting great naturalness and realism.
Saint Peter's Apotheosis (16th Century)Museo Arocena
Adoration of Saint Peter
In the classical world, the “Adoration” refers to granting the dignity of gods to heroes. In Christianity, the term represents the glorification of a person by the community. In this work, divine manifestation is expressed with very subtle characteristics: the presence of angels, keys and the exact posture of Saint Peter, who is a common man. Naturalism is a characteristic trait of XVII century Spanish Baroque art. It is proximity of that which is human and the eloquence of images from daily life. Artists used people from their environment as models, exactly as the painter Diego Velázquez did in Seville.
Saint John the Baptist as a Child (18th Century)Museo Arocena
"Little Saint John"
John the Baptist is usually represented in Christian art as an ascetic adult: with camel skin clothing, barefoot and with long hair. Here he is portrayed as a young child, as a “child Saint John” or “Little Saint John”. He can be recognized by the lamb he holds in his arms, a symbol that foreshadows Christ’s sacrifice. This small sculpture is similar to that of Andalusia manner, characterized by an aspect of grace and charm.
Leather Trunk or “Petaca” (16th Century)Museo Arocena
"Petaca"
“Petaca” (trunk) comes petlacalli, a Nahuatl word meaning “chest made of cane” and it describes travel trunks with a rigid structure woven out of reeds and covered with leather that were widely used during the XVII and XVIII centuries in New Spain for the transportation of travelers’ belongings and for goods imported and shipped on the Atlantic and trans-Pacific routes. This “petaca” is decorated with a “piteado” technique which means that leather is embroidered with maguey fiber, a technique that originated in pre-Colombian times. The central decorative element is a two-headed eagle, the emblem of the Spanish Empire governed by the Hapsburgs.
Our Lady of Aranzazú The pious account tells about the apparition of Our Lady Mary in a hut to the shepherd Rodrigo Balzátegui, near Oñate, province of Guipúzcoa, Spain. The name of the devotion comes from the question which Balzátegui asked Mary in the Basque language: “Aranzazú?” which means, “You, in the hawthorn?”. The composition exactly recreates the piece from around 1700 by Cristóbal de Villalpando, a painter from New Spain, which possibly formed part of the chapel of the Convent of Saint Francis in Mexico City under the auspices of the brotherhood that cared for it, which was founded in 1681 by a group of Basques.
Our Lady of Solitude A scenario with drapery surrounds Our Lady of Solitude, a variation of the devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows, kneeling with her hands in a praying position. She wears a mourning garment; posed on a plinth of silverwork with four small angels, flanked by vases of flowers. It is a true portrait or vera efigie, representing the sculpture that is venerated in the Convento de la Victoria of the Order of Minims of Madrid and which, commissioned by Queen Elizabeth of Valois, was done by Gaspar Becerra in 1563. This image’s fame reached New Spain, where chapels were dedicated to it in the cathedrals of Mexico City and Puebla and in a church in Oaxaca.
Our Lady of Guadalupe The apparition of Our Lady to Juan Diego in December of 1531 started one of the most widespread religious cults in the Spanish realm. As devotion, it was driven by the creoles and the secular clergy and in 1663, the papal Curia dedicated a festival day to her and prayers were said in her name. In 1737, the Church declared Our Lady of Guadalupe the patron saint of Mexico City, establishing her feast on December 12; in 1754, she was declared patron of the Realm of New Spain.
IV. The Trans-Pacific Route
After the end of the XV century, travels by European powers took their navigators to American and Asian lands to explore and conquer them. Spaniards reached the Philippines through New Spain. The Portuguese established contact with India through the Ports of Goa and Kochi, the Island of Ceylon and Macao, in China; in addition to important settlements on the African coasts.
Spain as well as Portugal used the abilities of local artisans to promote the development of indigenous manufacturing destined for sea commerce, such as ivory carvings and porcelain crafts for their exportation to American viceroyalties and European cities. Merchandise had to be adjusted to western taste as far as models and iconography was concerned, even when done by Asian artisans; thus, the interpretation of motifs and forms had very distinctive characteristics.
The Manila Galleons, also known as the China ships, made their first voyage in 1565, leaving the Philippine city for the port of Acapulco which would become a busy place where merchandise was received twice a year. At the same time, the Acapulco Ship sailed from the place with the same name with large quantities of silver from New Spain and crossed the Pacific Ocean until it reached its destiny in the archipelago.
Spanish-Philippine Ivory The sculptures of Our Lady of Sorrows and San Juan were the result of the joint work of several specialists: on one hand, there were wood carvers, who made the bodies on which chased silver sheets were placed, imitating sumptuous polychrome made by silversmiths and, lastly, the faces and limbs were done by ivory sculptors. What is important in this work from Guatemala is the richness of the silverwork and the expressive hands and faces. The origin of the crucified Christ shows a marked Spanish-Philippine influence, although in the same manner, it could have also formed part of a similar Guatemalan sculptural group.
Plates (18th Century)Museo Arocena
Plates from the India Company
The India Companies were enterprises that managed trade between the European cities – in this case Spanish cites – and their colonies. The export of porcelain was done by these European maritime companies. The porcelain pieces that were not fully decorated were found in warehouses in Canton so that the initials or emblems of future owners could be added when custom-ordered. The designs combined western images inspired in gild along with Chinese decorative figures to satisfy European and American taste. An ornamental characteristic is the use of a gold border or edging known as a “spearhead” which found in this piece and floral motifs are defined on the base.
V. Route of Ideas
Just as painters, sculptors and creators traveled between the Spanish kingdoms, ideas also traveled that later gave rise to artistic work that travelled complex routes where writings, brushstrokes, images and history crisscrossed with each other. Such is the case of the most famous paintings of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682). His paintings of the Immaculate Conception are images that have prevailed in the repertoire of Christian art to date.
Artists took on the complex task of pictorially visualizing a Marian mystery in XVI century Seville: was the Virgin, as well as Jesus, conceived without Original Sin? This polysemic mission was undertaken by some Sevillian painters such as Francisco Zurbarán or Diego Velázquez, but in 1650 it was Murillo who simplified the image’s essential attributes. He gave it a powerful simplicity that greatly resounded within the Spanish community; thus, his Inmaculada was the solution to a difficult visual problem that synthesized different ideas: the medieval tradition of the Tota Pulchra textual models established by his contemporary, Francisco Pacheco, as well as representations of apocalyptic virgins and the Assumption.
In the Arocena Collection, Murillo creates an ethereal atmosphere of clouds and glory breaking over an image of youthful maternity that made the faithful on both sides of the Atlantic to accept this image with special devotion, influencing Miguel Cabrera and Eusebio Carrillo, artists from New Spain.
Murillo's Immaculate Conception Bartolomé Esteban Murillo is one of the most important painters in the Andalusian School of the Spanish Golden Age. His paintings were artistic models for numerous artists in Spain and America, especially his paintings of the Good Shepherd and the Immaculate Conception.
Throughout his life, Murillo and his studio painted dozens of variations of the latter. The similarity of this work to the Inmaculada Concepción “de Aranjuez” (Prado National Museum, Madrid), allows us to determine that this work was created towards the last quarter of the XVII century.
Cabrera's Interpretation Murillo’s production was one of the vastest ones in the Spanish Golden Age: his studio was entrusted with the production of dozens of versions of the subject, along with the devotion that extended to all of the Spanish kingdoms. Some versions found their way to New Spain, where the gentleness represented by the Sevillian broke with the most traditional pictorial schemes. Their illumination, iconographic models, application of color and diaphanous effect maintained a close dialog with local painters such as Cristóbal de Villalpando, Juan Rodríguez Juárez, José de Ibarra and Miguel Cabrera.
This latter painter copied some aspects of Murillo’s painting, but incorporated others from the model described by Pacheco, such as the crown with twelve stars, allusions to the Litany of Loreto, the moon and the defeat of the serpent.
New images
This painting uses different iconographic models in a synthesis of symbols: She is portrayed as the Queen of Heaven with her crown and cape with stars; but also identified as the woman described in the Apocalypses: ‘Dressed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and crowned with twelve stars.’ In a later passage, it is stated that ‘she was given two eagle wings’, characteristics that complement the Immaculate image along with apocalyptic virgins.
MUSEO AROCENA
Director: Rosario Ramos Salas
Exhibition curators and research: Adriana Gallegos Carrión / Sergio Garza Orellana / Marco Antonio Silva Barón / Marcela Zapiain González
Photography: Gerardo Suter / Jesús Alberto Flores Valenciano / Lorena Valdivia Armendáriz
Translation courtesy of Museo del Noreste, Monterrey, Nuevo León.
