Introductory Essay: The Power of Images

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge the most salient contributions among the many that played a part in the symposium's genesis. Joseph Rishel, curator of ‘Tesoros,’ conceived of the idea of a symposium and used his unique shamanistic powers to transform it into my project. Antonio Feros, University of Pennsylvania colleague, gallantly shouldered a major part of the fund-raising and other organizational chores. Pamela Jardine co-curated ‘Under European Eyes’ and thus ensured that it would in fact happen. Funds for the symposium came from a variety of sources, most principally our own institution, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but also the Mex-Am Cultural Foundation, the Samuel Kress Foundation, and the Program for Cooperation between Spain and United States Universities. Colonial Latin American Review contributed in many ways culminating in the collective effort to publish this volume as a memoir of the symposium and as a tribute to the ‘Tesoros’ exhibit and to Anne d'Harnoncourt, whose love for Latin America and its arts lay behind the whole endeavor.

Notes

1. See Trent, sess. 25, 4 December 1563, in Canones et decreta (1893, 205–6).

2. Burgoa (1989a [1674], II, 130). On pictures as the best way to teach the gospel, see Dávila Padilla (1955 [1596], lib. 1, cap. 81; lib. 2, cap. 87). See also Dean (1989) and Mujica Pinilla (2006) on pictorial catechisms and preaching, and Valadés (1989 [1579], 94–95, 235–37) on the Indians’ ingenuity in remembering by ‘signos y figuras.’

3. Although they cannot be held responsible for the naïve use I have made of their disciplines, I owe much of this conceptual perspective to discussions of discourse and image theory with colleagues in an intermittently held seminar ‘Colonial Dialogues,’ most especially Tom Cummins, William Hanks, and Greg Urban. My own anthropological take on images derives also from Debray (1992) and the many articles in Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, among other sources.

4. George Kubler was a pioneer in this contextual exploration. See Kubler (1948), still a good source for sixteenth-century economic and social history, though short on the interaction between form and context.

5. The four essays that appear in this volume proceed from a symposium entitled ‘The Power of Images: Images of Power in Colonial Latin America,’ organized by myself and Antonio Feros, of the University of Pennsylvania, and held in Philadelphia in November 2006. We include the full symposium program in the Appendix to this introduction. Had it been possible we would have been pleased to publish all eleven of the symposium papers. Limitations of space, geographical and thematic balance, and other considerations dictated this selection. The symposium title may have been (unconsciously) derived from Freedberg (1989).

6. The exhibition that inspired the symposium covered all of Latin America, with objects from every corner and every time period. But since despite our best efforts the symposium was unable to include Brazil, and since these four papers refer only to the viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru, my remarks will be confined to Spanish America, although many of the points about the modus operandi of images in the Spanish empire could equally apply to its Portuguese counterpart.

7. Aside from the four articles, my own years of immersion in the literature and records, and a long acquaintance with the saints and rituals of popular devotion, the discussions and other papers in the ‘Power of Images’ symposium (see Appendix) provided much in the way of ideas and information. I am especially grateful to the discussants who sent me written versions of their comments (Elizabeth Boone, David Brading, Raquel Chang-Rodríguez, Susan Deans-Smith, Kris Lane, John Monaghan, and Greg Urban). I have quoted from several of them. I also thank Anne Pushkal for her notes on the final Round Table exchange.

8. One set of casta paintings was exhibited in ‘Tesoros’: Rishel and Stratton-Pruitt (2006, 404–10, fig. VI-49-63). On casta paintings Katzew (2004), and on some larger imperial implications, Deans-Smith (2005). On ethnic mobility, Seed (1988) and Castleman (2001), and Charles Wagley's early, classic essay (1965) on the social construction of race in Latin America.

9. Rishel and Stratton-Pruitt (2006, 370, fig. VI-19) ‘Conveyance of the image and Inauguration of the Sanctuary of Guadalupe.’ See figs. B-4, D-13, and VI-73, pp. 7, 37, and 421, and Vargaslugo (2005, 241, 408–9) for less playful and less complex examples of religious processions. On the Cuzco Corpus Christi series, see Wuffarden (1996) and Dean (1999). Among many examples of secular ceremonies, see the 1716 painting, Entrada del Virrey Arzobispo Diego Morcillo Rubio de Auñón en Potosí by Melchor Pérez de Holguín, Museo de América, Madrid, inventory # 00087.

10. See Figure 2.12 studied by Cuadriello in this volume, for a visual representation of this integrative role.

11. These observations are based principally on archival and ethnographic evidence pertaining to Yucatan and Oaxaca. See Taylor (1996, 239–300) on tensions between priests and parishioners over control of celebrations and saints in eighteenth-century central and northern Mexico. Other parts of Spanish America may well follow patterns similar to those in Mexico.

12. See, for example, Jouve Martín (2007) on the Homeric inspiration for a performance presented by the Lima guild of mulattoes. On civic and religious festivals in Mexico, see Lopes Don (1997) and Curcio-Nagy (2004). An example of the numerous contemporary descriptions of ceremonial ephemera is Cervantes de Salazar (1975 [1560]) on the funeral monument and procession for Charles I. Sor Juana was among the colonial literary figures selected to design a triumphal arch and an accompanying verbal tribute, in this case for the 1680 entrada of the viceroy Marqués de la Laguna: see Paz (1982, 203–21).

13. Among art historians currently active in rewriting this script, a few who first come to my mind, along with some representative works, are: Cuadriello (2004), Cummins (1995, 2002), Escalante (2005), and Escalante et al. (2008). But see also the work of historians Alberro (1997) and Estenssoro (this volume). For a general discussion of interaction in colonial visual images see Dean and Liebsohn (2003). Among the many studies of colonial written texts that must be considered ‘co-authored,’ see Burkhart (1989, 1996) and Stone (2004).

14. Anghiera (1989 [1516–1526], Década Cuarta, cap. IX, 284). See Russo (2002) on European reactions to featherwork. On the ‘extraña hermosura,’ see Acosta (1962 [1590], lib. 4, cap. 37). Acosta and Cobo (1956 [1653]) were among the most effusive in their praise, but such reactions were common in the first period of encounter, as in, for example, Hernán Cortés, Bartolomé de Las Casas, and the often quoted reactions of the German artist Albrecht Dürer.

15. The literature on European collecting of exotica in the age of colonization has become extensive. On Mexican objects in Italy, see Heikamp and Anders (1972); on wunderkammern, for example, Morán Turina and Checa Cremades (1985) and Impey and MacGregor (2001); on Spanish collections, see Cabello Carro (1989) and Julien (1999).

16. See Muldoon (1994) on natural law and the moral theology of empire, based mainly on the writings of Francisco de Vitoria and other members of the Salamanca school.

17. For later colonial depictions of Moctezuma with European royal accoutrements, see Vargaslugo (2005, 48–49, 102–3, 108, 121) and as classical ruler, e.g., Rishel and Stratton-Pruitt (2006, 377: fig. VI-26).

18. I am thinking of certain examples from Oaxaca, such as the Lienzos de Guevea, de Huilotepec, de Macuilxochitl, and de Petapa, which can be found, poorly reproduced, in Oudijk (2000).

19. For an overview, see Florescano (2002).

20. See Cummins, et al. (2005) for extensive and copiously illustrated discussions of colonial representation of the Inca.

21. In a variant on the Gramscian notion of cultural hegemony or Marxist dominant ideology, Day (2008) argues, specifically for imperial rule, that the colonized must actually receive some benefit rather than merely being hoodwinked.

22. See Jones and Stallybrass (2000) on clothing. See Rubial Garcia (1999) on colonial beatos and their relics; for contemporary accounts of these onslaughts in Mexico, see, for example, Dávila Padilla (1625, lib. 2, caps. 14, 28, 66bis, and 91–92), Burgoa (1989b [1670], 444; 1989a [1674], II, 365–66), and Mendieta (1870 [1590s], lib. 5, pt. l, caps. 16 and 44).

23. For example, Fray Pedro de Feria's 1567 Doctrina (ff. 84–86v on communion), which, as the only Zapotec catechism for more than a century, had a wide and long-lasting influence. The date on sacramental practice is widely scattered, but see Pardo (2004, 131–58) on debates over eligibility for communion. Ledesma (1566, ff. 49v–67) provides contemporary summary of the doctrine of the Eucharist, for the benefit of fellow theologians and based on recent Tridentine legislation.

24. See Estrada de Gerlero (2004) and Russo (2002, 139–44).

25. An especially poignant image in the ‘Tesoros’ show was that of crucified Christ Child (Rishel and Stratton-Pruitt 2006, 273, fig. V-10), also sometimes depicted on the way to Calvary bearing his child-sized cross and crown of thorns, such as an eighteenth-century polychrome ‘Niño Nazareno de la Demanda,’ located in the church of La Merced, Guatemala City.

26. An especially complete set of visitas pastorales, for the diocese of Oaxaca, 1778–83, is located in Archivo General de Indias, Audiencia de Mexico 2586 and 2588. See Gombrich (1990, 7), quoting Hegel on the disjunction between piety and aesthetics. The literature on the cult of the saints in colonial Spanish America is extensive. See, for example, Rubial García (2006) and other articles in Nesvig (2006) and, for a superb study of the iconography of an individual saint, Santa Rosa de Lima, whose cult extended far beyond Peru, see Mujica Pinilla (2001).

27. Of the many studies of Protestant iconoclasm in Europe, see Eire (1986) and the account of the war of attrition against holy objects and images in England by Duffy (1992). For a general history of the phenomenon from the time of the Egyptians, Gutmann (1971).

28. Belting (1994). See also Guidieri (1983) and Latour (2001), among other provocative articles in the journal Res on immanence and ‘iconic efficacy.’

29. Ledesma (1566, f. 60) emphatically denied the Protestant assertion that the Eucharist Christ's words were to be taken in a metaphorical sense, noting that Christ had said ‘Hoc est corpus meum’ and not ‘Hoc est figura corporis mei.’

30. In the absence of a formal census, one will have to settle for impressionistic evidence that by far the major number of ex-votos commemorate miracles attributed to the Virgin, with Christ figures a distant second, and other saints such as St. Francis or St. Martin de Porres in third place. Scholarly attention to this widespread and popular genre seems disproportionately scant. But see Iturbe (1991) and Luque Agraz, Torres, and Olvera (2007), both catalogues of ex-voto exhibits.

31. Vargas Ugarte (1947) remains the major work on the cult of Mary throughout Spanish America, but see also Florencia and Oviedo (1755), on 106 Mexican Marian shrines. Taylor (2005) argues on the basis of printed sources that cult images of Christ clearly outnumbered those of Mary in colonial Mexico. More work is required to resolve this point. My own impression from years of pilgrimage (never willingly passing up a fiesta or a shrine) is that the majority of Mexicans do not share and have not shared my Christo-centric devotional bias.

32. In the later colonial imaginary Santiago's contribution to the conquest (see Martínez del Río del Redo 2005) overshadows that of the Virgin.

33. See Taylor (1996) on the subversive role that Santiago developed. Brazil holds the obstreperous saint in the same high regard as its Spanish American neighbors, as can be appreciated in Jorge Amado's novel War of the Saints (Sumiço da santa).

34. On confraternity property, see Farriss (1984, ch. 11) and on Bourbon appropriations Farriss (1980). The link between saints and land was less clear in northern Mexico, but the confraternities nevertheless served as institutions controlling community property and income, and competition for that control intensified in the late Bourbon period: Taylor (1996, 301–23). On community livestock under saints’ protection in Peru, see Millones (1979) and Celestino and Meyers (1981).