Colonial Art

Fernando Álvarez Carneiro (c. 1670–1744), Venezuela
The Holy Spirit, 1730
Oil on canvas
160.8 x 103.1 cm (63 5/16 x 40 9/16 in.)
Denver Art Museum. Promised gift of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros in honor of Carolina Cisneros Phelps

In addition to large commissions for churches and convents, craftsmen frequently created pieces in smaller dimensions for private worship. In certain cases, these were special orders carried out in accordance with the demands of the clients, as was probably the case with this tabernacle, which was made in Caracas in the last third of the 18th century. Though they are original to the piece, the paintings of Saint Anthony and Saint Barbara on the interior of the doors bear no relation to the iconography of Christ housed in the tabernacle. The piece’s Chinese-inspired exterior is decorated with gilt rocaille reliefs on a red background.

From 1572 until the dissolution of the order in 1767, the Society of Jesus maintained a series of missions or reservations in Upper Peru, today’s Bolivia. As part of their missionary activities the Jesuits organized art and trade schools for the indigenous people of the locale. The Moxos and Chiquitos missions achieved a great deal of recognition for their carved wood works. The majority of their production concentrated on small utilitarian objects like boxes for holding coca leaves. In exceptional cases larger and more elaborate works like this pair of desks were produced. The variegated carving of the entire surface is inlaid with mother-of-pearl, mimicking the use of this material in oriental works. The interiors of the fall-fronts are painted: one depicting a hunting scene while the other shows a scene of gallantry.

Quito was a renowned center of artistic production during the colonial period. The patronage of the city’s numerous religious institutions kept local painters, the majority of them Indians or mestizos, active in their trade. In spite of the relative proximity of other important artistic centers like Lima and Cuzco, painting from the Quito School possesses a style all its own; sober and elegant coloration added to very discrete use of gilding—employed only to emphasize minute details—such as in this image of Our Lady of Passau, probably inspired by a European print of a painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder. The painting’s frame, which is original, is evidence of the virtuosity of the city’s wood carvers.

José Ramón Cardozo (b. 1758), Venezuela
Armchair for the Choir of the Caracas Cathedral, 1797
Mahogany, velvet upholstery
135.5 x 79 x 65 cm (53 3/8 x 31 1/8 x 25 9/16 in.)
Denver Art Museum. Promised gift of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros in honor of Adriana Cisneros de Griffin

the construction of a new choir. The woodworker José Ramón Cardozo was commissioned with this work in 1794. After numerous delays and disputes with church authorities, he was barely able to finish the chairs before his contract was canceled in 1798. The Anglo-Dutch style design of the chairs may be based on one of the many images or treatises of European woodworking that were circulating throughout the Americas at the time. Intense commerce toward the end of the 18th century between the Captaincy General of Venezuela and the nearby Dutch and English colonies of the Caribbean may explain the possible origin of this particular design.

The upper classes—local nobles, landowners, and affluent merchants—of the great capitals of the Viceroyalties, Mexico City and Lima, competed with their counterparts in Madrid and Seville in the ostentatious display of New World riches. No expense was spared in the furnishing of homes and country estates. Very special care was put into the decoration of oratories in particular. Small and luxurious tabernacles with religious images, frequently collapsible for easy transport, were the focal point of domestic altars. This architecturally inspired 18th-century Mexican tabernacle resembles a small canopy supported by four small Salomonic columns. Opening its doors reveals an interior painted with chinoiserie on a vermilion background, in imitation of the luxurious Asian textiles circulated by the Manila Galleon. A pair of mirrors affixed to each of the four door flaps, with their respective gilt shelves and molding, served to increase the light of candles placed on the shelves. A full body image of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception completes the ensemble.

The Minas Gerais region of Brazil underwent extraordinary development during the 18th century due to its gold and diamond mines. The enormous wealth of the era is reflected in the area’s sophisticated art, imbued with Rococo spirit. These pieces, such as this small altar designed for private devotion, are generally painted in pastel colors and enhanced with gilding. The polychromatic and gilt figures have been carved from soft local stone. The altar consists of two parts: the upper section contains a scene of the Crucifixion of Jesus, and the lower section represents the Adoration of the Shepherds.

This easy chair, a low armchair with a tall, inclined back, was a furnishing for personal use and was destined for the most intimate spaces of colonial homes; those in which rigid Spanish etiquette, which required an erect posture when seated, could be cast aside. Its form is unique to the New World and derives from a small, typical ceremonial seat called ture, used by the pre-Columbian cultures of the Caribbean. The name butaca comes from the word putaca, seat, in the language of the Cumanagoto Indians of the northeastern coast of Venezuela. In this butaca, which dates from the second half of the 18th century, the traditional typology of the easy chair is adorned with the sinuous shapes of the Venezuelan Rococo style.

After their arrival in the New World, the Spanish adopted many of the native foods and beverages of the Americas, among them yerba mate, an herbal infusion enjoyed by South America’s pre-Columbian civilizations. Mate was the social beverage par excellence in the salons and bandstands of the Viceroyalty of Peru. In order to make mate, hot water must continually be on hand. Taking advantage of silver’s outstanding heat conducting properties, Peruvian silversmiths crafted many types of containers from this metal, which featured a small internal brazier.. One had simply to place a few burning coals within the designated space in order to keep water hot for an extended period of time. These water heaters, also called pavas, come in a great variety of forms: some are modeled after animal figures and others, as in this case, are simply rectangular forms with overlaying decoration. The decoration of this receptacle contains several distinctive motifs of Andean metalwork: wild lions, sirens, and pelicans.

Our Lady of the Light was widely worshiped in all of Spanish America, and especially in New Spain—today’s Mexico—where the Jesuits promoted her following. In Caracas the principal advocate of this devotion to Mary was Bishop Diego Antonio Diez Madroñero (1714–1769). Beginning in 1756, when he arrived in Venezuela to assume the post left vacant by the death of Bishop Francisco Julián de Antolino, Diez, Madroñero commissioned several images of Our Lady of the Light, and it is precisely during his bishopric when the master Juan Pedro López is likely to have been commissioned to execute this work.
The painting, holds a place among the greatest of López’s Works, and the elaborate gilded frame suggests that the work was likely commissioned for a chapel or convent in Caracas. During the piece’s restoration, an overpainting from a later date was removed, uncovering the body of a young soul that, by the Virgin’s intervention, is being liberated from the fires of hell. The figure of the youth must have been covered and replaced by a scepter (still visible in the work) in 1770, when canonical dispositions modified the iconography of Our Lady of the Light and the bishop ordered the correction of older images.

Antonio José Landaeta (active 1748–1799), Venezuela
Immaculate Conception, c. 1795
Oil on canvas
75.6 x 47.6 cm (29 3/4 x 18 3/4 in.)
Denver Art Museum. Promised gift of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros de Cisneros in honor of Frederick and Jan Mayer

The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception was declared the patron saint of Spain and all of its New World territories by Pope Clement XIII on the 8th of November, 1760. This proclamation inspired the cult of Mary, which explains the recurrence of this theme in the work of Venezuelan painters of the second half of the eighteenth century. The author of this work, Caracas master painter Antonio José Landaeta, was no exception. Landaeta, who was active between 1763 and 1810, produced several versions of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, all of which share a great deal of similarities, suggesting the possibility that he used a European print as a model. The painting, one of the few signed by the artist, may date from the last decade of the eighteenth century.

With the first trip in 1565 of the so-called “Manila Galleon” —which involved a lengthy voyage beginning at the port of Cavite, near Manila in the Philippines, and ending in Acapulco on the Pacific coast of Mexico—an important commercial exchange began between the Spanish colonies of America and the Far East that would last more than two centuries. The flow of all manner of sumptuous Asian goods throughout the entire territory of the New World simultaneously prompted the American manufacture of Eastern-inspired pieces in order to satisfy a market hungry for objects decorated “in the Chinese fashion.” This sewing box, possibly made in Peru, illustrates this production. Its exterior is completely covered with etched mother-of-pearl inlays organized in a complex geometrical design. The decoration is enhanced by tortoiseshell incrustations that contrast with the white of the shell. The interior is painted with red and gold imitation lacquer with Chinese-inspired motifs, and is divided into various compartments with tiny secret drawers.

Domingo Tomás Núñez (1735–1801), Venezuela
Sacrarium, c. 1790
Silver
16.4 x 15 x 7 cm (6 7/16 x 5 7/8 x 2 3/4 in.)
Denver Art Museum. Promised gift of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros in honor of Gisela and Carlos Padula

This small silver piece, measuring just over 6 inches, is an example of the aesthetic refinement and artisanal mastery achieved by the silversmiths of Caracas, Venezuela during the second half of the eighteenth century. This sacrarium, attributed to Domingo Tomás Núñez (1735–1801), is a miniature version of the silver sacraria that were used in the city’s principal temples. This portable adaptation was used to bring communion to those who could not attend church. In these cases, the priest was required to walk in solemn procession, with the sacrarium hanging from his neck by a silver chain, until reaching the place where the communion would be given. The complex embossed rocaille decoration that covers the entire surface of the piece is characteristic of the Rococo style that remained popular in Caracas until the last decade of the eighteenth century, much later than in other Spanish territories in America, where stylistic preferences were already turning toward classical forms of Greco-Roman inspiration.