16th century AD

Magazine Antiques, Oct, 2004 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

The immense riches that Spanish explorers discovered in the New World starting in the early years of the sixteenth century were principally derived from the enormous deposits of silver and gold in present-day Peru and Bolivia. This land was then part of the Incan empire of Tahuantinsuyu, which spanned a great geographic area extending along the Andes Mountains from central Chile to southern Columbia. The Incans who had populated this part of the world for millennia believed that the gold was the sweat of the sun and silver was the tears of the moon. Thus when these molten metals were shaped into something useful or artistic, the finished object was said to be imbued with sacred qualities.

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The Spanish insinuated themselves into the fabric of Incan life in ways that were both exploitive and at the same time somewhat conciliatory. For example, when the richest lode of silver was discovered in 1545 in the city of Potosi in southern Bolivia, the Spanish enslaved Indians to work the mines. At the same time they recognized the descendants of Incan leaders and awarded them coats of arms and other perquisites enjoyed by the Spanish nobility.

An exhibition, featuring more than 175 pieces of silver and textiles made in viceregal Peru that beautifully illustrate the blending of the aesthetic traditions of Spanish and Incan artisans, is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City until December 12. Entitled The Colonial Andes: Tapestries and Silverwork, 1530-1830, the exhibits include a group of silver objects that were part of the cargo of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which went down in a hurricane near Havana in 1622, and was recently recovered. These objects document the assimilation by local craftsmen of Spanish silversmiths' decorative vocabulary. The Spanish eventually organized the local craftsmen into guilds and taught them new techniques of making silver. They introduced them to steel and iron tools, which they had not used before, and gave them access to European prints.

The textiles also display the merging of traditions. Before the Spanish arrived, Incan weavers created cloth that was laden with symbols recognizable to their owners. After the conquest, local weavers added heraldic devices to their own decorative motifs. In 1653 a Spanish cleric noted that five types of cloth were made by Andean weavers. These ranged from coarse cloth to textiles woven with feathers, and cloth embroidered with silver and gold thread. The Spanish not only brought much more modern looms but also merino sheep in the hope of replacing one of the most common native wools, camelid.

Another stylistic influence came from the East. Starting in the late sixteenth century galleons from Manila brought Indian cottons and Chinese silks and porcelains to South America, either directly or by way of Mexico. Andean tapestries depicting such singularly Eastern motifs as peonies and mythological animals confirm the fluid exchange that existed between cultures widely separated both ideologically and geographically.

Some of the silver and textiles produced in viceregal Peru found their way to Spain thanks to the great royal collector Philip II. Among the artworks housed at El Escorial near Madrid alongside portraits by Titian were objects of silver and gold, Incan paintings, and two red-fringed textiles that Incan kings had worn on their foreheads as symbols of their sovereignty.

The exhibition also presents pieces made by and for the Catholic Church in Peru. These include not only silver and gold ecclesiastical vessels and church furnishings, but also textiles made to dress religious sculptures. Large and luxurious objects, such as lecterns sometimes entirely covered in silver, were also made for churches, and one example dating from around 1700 is included in the show.

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The excellent and informative catalogue is written by Elena Phipps, Johanna Hecht, and Cristina Esteras Martin with contributions by fourteen other scholars from around the world. It is published by the museum and Yale University Press and may be obtained from the museum bookstore at 800-468-7386.