review of Sculpture in the Kingdom of Quito (original) (raw)
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Andean Artists in Colonial Quito: The Case of Nicolas Pauca and Francisco Monga
The Monitor: Journal of International Studies, 2011
Between 1580 and 1680, the production of religious polychrome wood sculpture in Spain reached its zenith with distinctive styles developing in both Sevilla and Granada, among other cities. Through exportation, many of these images made their way to the Spanish colonies, promoting the development of schools of sculpture in the Americas— particularly in the city of Quito (Ecuador). The Franciscan School of San Andrés, founded in Quito in 1555, also contributed to the formation of the “Quito School” of sculpture by training Andean boys in the spiritual and manual arts. The first instructor at the school, fray Pedro Gocial, is recognized for introducing the arts of Europe to Quito. Thus, the Quito School was shaped by the style of imported Spanish works, immigrant Spanish artists, and trained Andean artists who possessed both familial and European-style instruction in a variety of artistic forms. Despite the historical evidence of their active, artistic existence, the native artists of Quito are often lumped together as an anonymous mass, and only a select few—to whom an overwhelmingly unrealistic quantity of work is attributed—are consistently recognized in the literature. Nonetheless, it appears that, from the early sixteenth century through the majority of the seventeenth century, native sculptors practiced their trade in Quito without an officially recognized guild system, which would have overseen and controlled professional practices. Although principally addressing architecture in this time frame, Susan V. Webster asserts that, “there was almost a complete lack of official recognition, control, and vigilance over the building trades, even when the city itself depended upon these professions for the construction of public works.” A visit to any of Quito’s many colonial churches makes it clear that vast quantities of art—particularly sculpture—were produced during these years. Who then produced this art? If historical evidence of Andean sculptors exists, why do these indigenous artists remain unrecognized? Will they ever be properly recognized?
Local and regional sculpture workshops in Hispania
Archaeology of Lived Spaces. XXth International Congress of Classical Archaeology, 2024
A large part of the sculptures discovered in the Roman towns and villae of Hispania were made in the great productive centres of the Empire – mainly Rome and the Eastern Mediterranean. However, it is also documented the existence of endogenous workshops, which are the focus of this paper.
THE POLYCHROME WOODEN SCULPTURES OF THE JESUIT REDUCTIONS IN PARAGUAY: A TECHNICAL STUDY
Trading Paintings and Painter´s Materials, 2019
This paper presents the results of a research project, carried out from 2015 to 2018 at the Technical University of Munich, which aimed to investigate the materials and techniques used for the production of polychrome wooden sculptures in the former Jesuit missions (reductions) in the period 1609-1767. A significant amount of the work involved the analysis of archival documents. According to these sources, not only tools and painting materials but also whole sculptures and paintings were sent to South America. Skills too were traded, with references to sculptors travelling between reductions to spread their knowledge, possibly teaching their craft to the Guaraní. Supplementing this source-based research was the technical examination of a number of original sculptures from Paraguay, which focused on both the analysis of materials used and the specific painting techniques employed. Techniques proved to be influenced by Spanish painting techniques, estofado being the prevailing method found for decorating the sculptures' clothes. Most of the identified pigments and fillers were available locally and already in use in precolonial times. However, colorants such Prussian blue, smalt and lac dye indicate the import of painters' materials. Locally available wood of Cedrela spp. was used for almost all of the analysed sculptures.
Emerging Naturalism. Contexts and Narratives in European Sculpture 1140-1220. Turnhout (Belgium): Brepols Publishers, pp. 291-311. Boto Varela, G.; Serrano Coll, M.; McNeill, J. (coords.), 2020
http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod\_id=IS-9782503574486-1 The 'Old Cathedral’ at Salamanca survives as a flagship of late Romanesque in the kingdom of Leon. The following article considers its architectural sculpture, executed between 1152 and 1230, in order to reflect on the factors that defined the material culture of the period. In particular, it will focus on the coexistence of pre-existing workshops, models and recognised plans on the one hand, and the novel dispositions of the sculpture on the other. Such coexistence might seem contradictory, but is a more general attribute of a period characterised by a tension between continuity and innovation. This can be seen at other cathedral ensembles, most notably Santiago de Compostela.