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Art of the Americas to World War I
Course: Art of the Americas to World War I > Unit 4
Lesson 2: Viceroyalty of New Spain- An introduction to New Spain
- Hispaniola’s early colonial art, an introduction
- Prints and Printmakers in Colonial New Spain
- The Bug That Had the World Seeing Red
- The Medici collect the Americas
- Virgin of Guadalupe
- Virgin of Guadalupe
- Defensive saints and angels in the Spanish Americas
- Elite secular art in New Spain
- Classical Architecture in Viceregal Mexico
- Hearst Chalice
- Puebla de los Ángeles and the classical architectural tradition
- La Casa del Deán in Puebla
- Mission churches as theaters of conversion in New Spain
- St. Michael the Archangel in Huejotzingo
- The convento of Acolman
- Murals from New Spain, San Agustín de Acolman
- Atrial Cross, convento San Agustín de Acolman, mid-16th century
- Atrial Cross at Acolman
- The Codex Huexotzinco
- Miguel González, The Virgin of Guadalupe
- Frontispiece of the Codex Mendoza
- Images of Africans in the Codex Telleriano Remensis and Codex Azcatitlan
- The Convento of San Nicolás de Tolentino, Actopan, Hidalgo
- Bernardino de Sahagún and collaborators, Florentine Codex
- Remembering the Toxcatl Massacre: The Beginning of the End of Aztec Supremacy
- Featherworks: The Mass of St. Gregory
- A Renaissance miniature in wood and feathers
- A shimmering saint, St. John in featherwork
- “Burning of the Idols,” in Diego Muñoz Camargo’s Description of the City and Province of Tlaxcala
- Map of Cholula, from the relaciones geográficas
- Engravings in Diego de Valadés’s Rhetorica Christiana
- The manuscripts of Luis de Carvajal
- Baltasar de Echave Ibía, The Hermits
- Mission Church, San Esteban del Rey, Acoma Pueblo
- Sebastián López de Arteaga, Marriage of the Virgin
- Cristóbal de Villalpando, View of the Plaza Mayor of Mexico City
- Talavera poblana
- Biombo with the Conquest of Mexico and View of Mexico City
- Screen with the Siege of Belgrade and Hunting Scene (Brooklyn Biombo)
- Screen with the Siege of Belgrade and Hunting Scene (or Brooklyn Biombo)
- The Virgin of the Macana and the Pueblo Revolution of 1680
- Miguel de Herrera, Portrait of a Lady
- José Campeche, the portraitist of 18th-century Puerto Rico
- José Campeche y Jordán, Portrait of Governor Ramón de Castro
- José Campeche, Exvoto de la Sagrada Familia
- Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz, Christ Consoled by Angels
- Mission San Antonio de Valero & the Alamo
- Nativity group, from Guatemala
- Jerónimo de Balbás, Altar of the Kings (Altar de los Reyes)
- Miguel Cabrera, Virgin of the Apocalypse
- Cabrera, Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
- Casta paintings: constructing identity in Spanish colonial America
- Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo, attributed to Juan Rodriguez
- Church of Santa Prisca and San Sebastian, Taxco, Mexico
- Crowned nun portraits, an introduction
- Crowned Nun Portrait of Sor María de Guadalupe
- Escudos de monjas, or nuns’ badges, in New Spain
- Christ Crucified, a Hispano-Philippine ivory
- Saintly violence? Santiago in the Americas
- What does the music of heaven sound like?— St Cecilia in New Spain
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Christ Crucified, a Hispano-Philippine ivory
Christ Crucified, 17th century, ivory (Museo Franz Mayer, Mexico City)
Speakers: Dr. Lauren G. Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris, Smarthistory, and Steven Zucker.
Video transcript
(pleasant jazz music) - [Steven] We're in the Franz
Mayer Museum in Mexico City and we're looking at this
large sculpture in ivory of the crucifixion of Christ and it's a fabulous example
of the complex trade routes that existed in the late
16th and early 17th century, when we think this was made. - [Lauren] This object in ivory would have been produced in likely Manila, in the Philippines. The ivory would have been
imported from somewhere else because it was not local, so maybe from India or maybe even beyond that and then the ivory
workers in the Philippines were actually being trained
initially by Chinese artists who were familiar with
working in this technique, and they were producing these objects for export across the Pacific. - [Steven] It took tremendous effort to get ships across that ocean. But there were regular voyages between Acapulco on the Pacific Coast, near Mexico City and the Philippines, both lands controlled by the Spanish. - [Lauren] And so an object like this would have made its way via
the Manila Galleon trade, getting into Acapulco, then would have been carried
over land to Mexico City where it either would have been purchased or made its way further over
land to the Port of Veracruz and then made its way across
the Atlantic, back to Europe. - [Steven] Mexico was in the center of this complex web of trade between East Asia and Europe, with Mexico right in the middle, and it would have been very
precious objects like this that would have been important enough to go on those kinds of
long distance journeys. Now Mexico City, in turn, would have been trading with East Asia with the precious metals, for instance, that it was extracting. So gold and silver would have been making their way East in exchange for objects of
ivory and silk and ceramics. - [Lauren] So an object like this would have likely been in a private chapel for someone who is very elite. This is not the type of object that was probably gonna be on display in a major altar piece,
in say, the cathedral. - [Steven] Well it's too small but for a piece of ivory, it's enormous and if you look at it carefully, you can see that the main pieces that make up this crucifixion mimic the natural curve
of an elephant's tusk, and so you can understand
how this was constructed. Each of the arms are carved
from individual tusks and it's possible that the
body is actually put together, although it's difficult to see where from our vantage point. Nevertheless, the
original turn of the tusk is still evident and adds emotional power to this figure as it animates the body of Christ. - [Lauren] This object
is a perfect example of the cosmopolitan nature
of Mexico or New Spain. - [Steven] It's so interesting for me to think about such a
powerfully religious subject, the result of Chinese knowledge in the hands of Philippine artisans, traded in Mexico. It speaks to the vast
global networks of trade in the early modern period, as well as the new reach of Catholicism. (pleasant jazz music)