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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
- Corn pith sculptures
- 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
- Testerian Catechism, The Egerton Codex
- 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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Sebastián López de Arteaga, Marriage of the Virgin
Sebastián López de Arteaga, Marriage of the Virgin (Los Desposorios de la Virgen), before 1652, oil on canvas, 223.5 x 170 cm (Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA, Mexico City)
Additional resources:
James Oles, Art and Architecture in Mexico (London: Thames & Hudson, 2013)
Painting a New World, exh. cat., ed. Donna Pierce, Denver Art Museum (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004) (available online)
Tesoros, Treasures, Tesouros, the Arts in Latin America, 1492–1820, exhibition catalogue (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2006)
Kelly Donahue-Wallace, Art and Architecture of Viceregal Latin America, 1521–1821 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2008)
. Created by Smarthistory.Video transcript
(jazzy piano music) - [Beth] We're in the National
Gallery of Art in Mexico City looking at a large painting of
the "Marriage of the Virgin". This is a common subject
in the Renaissance. - [Lauren] This painting
is by the Spanish artist, Sebastian Lopez de Arteaga, who moves from Spain to the Americas to what is today, Mexico,
what was then New Spain. And he creates this wonderful painting of the marriage between Saint
Joseph and the Virgin Mary. - [Beth] So we have the
priest in the center, who's marrying Joseph on the
left and Mary on the right. And Joseph has in his hand the ring, and Mary holds out her
fingers to accept that ring. And Joseph looks so young and handsome, I had to remind myself for a second, because he looks so Christ-like, that he was Joseph and not Christ. - [Lauren] And it's in this
moment that we're beginning to see the shift in the
iconography of Joseph, where instead of being
marginalized on the outskirts of the composition as this older man who is often sleeping, here, we see the young,
strapping, handsome verile man. - [Beth] It's true that
for centuries in Europe, the emphasis was on Mary, but in the 16th and 17th Centuries, we have this new interest in Joseph. The Holy Spirit is just
above Joseph's head here, swooping in and so we have this sense of this earthly marriage
here between Joseph and Mary, the delight of the angels in heaven and the musical instruments
played in celebration of their marriage by angels. - [Lauren] And I think
it's important to discuss the importance of Joseph
here in New Spain. Early on after the conquest,
during the conversion process, St. Joseph becomes the
patron Saint of New Spain, and there are very
specific reasons for that. He is the patron saint of
conversion, for instance. - [Beth] Well, he's the first convert. He experiences a vision
from God who explains that the baby that Mary
carries is in fact, Christ. The baby is divine, the baby is God. And so in a way, he is
the first Christian. - [Lauren] In the context of
this moment of evangelization of the vast indigenous populations, Joseph becomes incredibly important. - [Beth] You know, these
figures are so close to us that it feels like we're part of the marriage ceremony with them. We see faintly behind them
a church-like setting, but the emphasis is really on the figures and the divine nature of this marriage. And we have above the priest, the Hebrew letters for God. This artist didn't always
paint in this style. - [Lauren] Early on when he first arrived, he'd paint what we would
call caravaggesque realism, this style focused on earth tones, dramatic differences
between light and shadow. And in fact, we're looking
at some of his earlier depictions here in the gallery
that are paired with this painting of the marriage. They couldn't be more different. - [Beth] Well, the earlier
painting of the Doubting Thomas, of Thomas touching Christ's
wounds so that he believes that in fact, this is Christ resurrected, there's a realism there
and the wounds of Christ and the faces of the apostles who look on, but here in this painting of
the marriage of the Virgin, we have figures who are more
beautiful, more idealized. - [Lauren] Some of that
earlier attention to detail and naturalistic elements,
you do find those here in this painting, particularly in the face of the priest. It's wrinkled and the
attention to the beard, or even in the carpet that
all the figures stand on, where you do get the sense
that he wants to portray objects as they would
have appeared in nature. The reason for that shift is actually when Lopez de Arteaga first arrives here, he was painting in a
style that was in vogue back on the Iberian Peninsula, but quickly learned that what was desired was this more colorful,
more idealized style that we're seeing here in the marriage. And I think the point you made
earlier about this glorifying of the marriage is also
important in terms of marriage. Monogamy became such an important point to convey to this population here. - [Beth] Monogamy, fatherhood,
being a good father, these are all things
that Joseph could help the church to convey. - [Lauren] And what we see
in, say, the 16th Century is this belief that the
indigenous populations were too polygamous. They weren't practicing monogamy. What we're seeing here in this painting is that continued notion that
you needed to communicate the importance of a chaste,
monogamous marriage. - [Beth] So we have an
artist who comes from Spain, learns that what he's
painting is not in vogue, changes his style to match
the desires of his patrons and a subject matter that
has particular relevance for New Spain. (jazzy piano music)