BOOKS Painting in Latin America, 1550–1820: From Conquest to Independence. Edited by Luisa Elena Alcalá and Jonathan Brown. 480 pp. incl. 378 col. + 10 b. & w. ills. (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2015), £45. ISBN 978–0–300–19101–1. Reviewed by CRISTINA CRUZ GONZÁLEZ decades have witnessed a plethora of substantial colonial Latin American art exhibitions, so much so that the volume here under review might appear redundant, not least because its authors have contributed to the earlier publications.1 Yet the eleven chapters in Painting in Latin America are thought provoking and largely original; additionally, the book’s bibliographic richness, frequent inclusion of little-studied artists and presentation of high-quality images (many published for the first time) make it a truly rewarding study. The first chapter is primarily a theoretical discussion by Luisa Elena Alcalá addressing the historiography, terminology and difficulty of formulating a canon for Spanish American art. How does one write a history that accounts for hybridity or indigeneity and how do these concepts differ in Ixmiquilpan versus Cuzco? How can we discuss style without resorting to limited labels best suited to the Italian Renaissance? How do relationships between colonial and European painting differ within Latin America and over long stretches of time? Alcalá stresses the need to account for the complexity of ‘the time and place where each piece was made’ and rightly warns that the biggest challenge might be for readers to ‘consider not just how Spanish American art is like or unlike European art, but how it is itself’ (p.68). The first half of the volume is dedicated to the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Eduardo de Jesús Douglas tackles the topic of indigenous painting during the first few decades after the conquest (1521–1600), focusing on manuscripts, feather paintings and murals. His examples are mostly well known and the chapter, compact and cogently written, clearly demonstrates the range of early colonial visual production. One is left wondering how a discussion of indigenous knowledge, European models and pictorial translation might change if one’s survey included, for instance, illustrated devotional literature or colonial mural production beyond central Mexico. The third chapter, by Jonathan Brown, addresses the importation, circulation and adaptation of European works relating to the history of painting in Mexico City and Puebla (1550–1700). It is a cogent discussion of markets and models, the author convincingly demonstrating how Seville, Antwerp and Mexico City ‘formed a cultural area united by religion, sovereignty, and the resulting visual culture’ (p.105). The potency of this cultural sphere was not only manifested in New Spain by the appearance of Flemish works (Simon Pereyns and Marten de TH E LAS T TW O 856 de ce m be r 2015 • cl vii • Vos most immediately), but also pictorially realised in the later religious compositions by José Juarez, Cristóbal de Villalpando, Baltasar de Echave Orio and their heirs. These later artists often demonstrated, even flaunted, ‘how the varied strategies of European artistic practice were deconstructed and recombined in the workshops of Mexico City’ (p.133). Aside from conventional easel painting, Brown also provides an interesting discussion of enconchados (pictorial works incorporating mother-of-pearl inlay) and biombos (painted screens inspired by the Japanese byobu). Often narrating historical episodes and scenes of daily colonial life, such objects underscore East Asia’s significance in a Hispanic global market and the importance of New Spain as participant in this early modern conversation. Ilona Katzew lucidly discusses eighteenthcentury Mexican painting and the rise of the creole artist, showing how painters in New Spain formed workshops and guilds that attempted greater exclusivity, organisation and recognition. While the trajectory that links Nicolás Rodíguez and José de Ibarra to Miguel Cabrera and José de Alcíbar is skilfully presented and beautifully illustrated, students of the period will be especially thankful for the inclusion of largely unknown artists such as Francisco Martínez and Andrés de Islas. The soul guided by Christ (1732) and The Divine Shepherd (1750), both rich allegorical works by Martínez, in particular, beg for a more thorough study and understanding of how particular emblem books were used, interpreted and reinscribed in new and novel ways. Where Katzew leaves off (1785), Jaime Cuadriello picks up with his discussion of the royal art academy of San Carlos. The chapter’s wealth of documentary evidence is admirable. Additionally, readers will find much to ponder in the supposition that the establishment of an academy in the viceregal capital – a goal so sought-after for over a century by local artists – proved detrimental to a Mexican school of painting. ‘However paradoxical it may seem,’ Cuadriello writes, ‘the Academy and its civil servants ultimately denied the professors any possibility of identity and control’ (p.241). The second half of the volume is dedicated to the Viceroyalty of Peru with Luis Eduardo Wuffarden writing all but one of the six chapters. Wuffarden brilliantly shows how the sixteenth-century arrival of Italian works and artists – Bernardo Bitti, Mateo Pérez de Alesio and Angelino Medoro – had the greatest impact on the colonial region, in marked contrast to Mexico’s preference for Flemish art. The Jesuit Bitti, in particular, had an immediate effect on local art in Lima and Cuzco, and his ensuing work seemingly developed alongside the history of painting in Italy (see his Romaninspired Virgin and Child for the Jesuit church in Arequipa, for instance). Subsequent chapters address the flowering of a Cuzco school, punctuated by the emergence of native artists (Diego Quizpe Tito and Basilio de Santa Cruz Pumacallao) and the arrival of the Madridborn bishop and powerful art patron Manuel the burl ington m agazine de Mollinedo y Angulo, Bishop of Cuxco from 1673 to 1699. Wuffarden’s elaboration of the ‘Mollinedo era’ is among the book’s chief highlights; another is his exploration of the so-called Inca Renaissance, a celebration and idealisation of pre-Hispanic culture by colonial native elites. The period, beginning with the seventeenth-century publication of the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega’s Comentarios Reales and ending with the traumatic defeat of Tupac Amaru II in 1781, reached its aesthetic pinnacle with portraits of Inca nobles and ñustas (royal Inca women). The portrait of Marcos Chiguan Topa (c.1740–1750) is especially striking for its proud pose, prominent insignia, rich attire and elaborate text attesting to the sitter’s lineage, accomplishments and claims. Following the rebellion of Tupac Amaru II, one understands the Spanish fear of such images and it is little wonder that many local officials ordered their destruction. Hiroshige Okada’s fascinating survey of mural painting in the Viceroyalty of Peru, the volume’s closing chapter, takes the medium beyond the religious work of the sixteenth century. By the mid-seventeenth century, grotesque and other European designs and ‘textile effects’ were frequently employed; while some of the decoration maintained fidelity to models, ‘ornamental decoration in murals gradually evolved and changed tone as it assimilated regional or popular taste’ (p.422). Whether painted on walls or incorporated in textile design, ‘the ornamental’ might be read as the process of cultural projection, assimilation and probable mimicry, as the author suggests. Despite the strong closing chapter, the volume ends abruptly without summary or conclusion. Readers will be disappointed by other omissions as well. Given the focus on painting, it is indeed strange that Marcos de Aquino, alleged author of the Mexican Virgin of Guadalupe (undoubtedly the most famous painting produced in colonial Latin America), is not mentioned once throughout this book. Then there is the unfortunate choice of title. The study does not address painting from all of Latin America nor does the project adhere, strictly speaking, to the proposed period of 1550–1820 (see the second chapter, for instance). Despite these criticisms all the essays are valuable contributions to the field and add much to our understanding of colonial painting and the historical and social circumstances in which both the portable and permanent were produced. D. Pierce, R. Ruíz Gomar and C. Bargellini Denver, eds.: exh. cat. Painting a New World: Mexican Art and Life, 1521–1821, Denver (Museum of Art) 2004; J. Rishel, ed.: exh. cat. The Arts in Latin America, 1492–1820, New Haven (Yale University Art Gallery) 2006; S. StrattonPruitt, ed.: exh. cat. The Virgin, Saints and Angels: South American Paintings 1600–1825 from the Thoma Collection, Austin (Blanton Museum of Art) 2008; I. Katzew, ed.: exh. cat. Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World, Los Angeles (County Museum of Art) 2011; and S. Stratton-Pruitt, ed.: exh. cat. Journeys to New Worlds: Spanish and Portuguese Colonial Art in the Roberta and Richard Huber Collection, Philadelphia (Museum of Art) 2013. 1