Bulletin of Portuguese - Japanese Studies
ISSN: 0874-8438
[email protected]
Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Portugal
Curvelo, Alexandra
THE ARTISTIC CIRCULATION BETWEEN JAPAN, CHINA AND THE NEW-SPAIN IN THE 16TH17TH CENTURIES
Bulletin of Portuguese - Japanese Studies, vol. 16, junio, 2008, pp. 59-69
Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Lisboa, Portugal
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BPJS, 2008, 16, 59-69
The artistic circulation between Japan,
CHINA AND THE NEW-SPAIN
IN THE 16TH-17TH CENTURIES 1
Alexandra Curvelo
Centro de História de Além-Mar, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Abstract
Some namban lacquered objects and paintings related to them, as well
as folding screens that were produced in Macao or New-Spain are vivid
testimonies of a large scale network of contacts and exchanges. The analysis
of this material heritage raises new questions about the relations and connections between Asia and America between the last quarter of the 16th century
and the 17th century. It also attests a richer and more composite framework
for an artistic patronage that is still insufficiently identified.
Resumo
Através de alguns exemplares de laca namban e da pintura que por vezes
lhe está associada, assim como dos biombos produzidos tanto em Macau
como na Nova Espanha, é possível percepcionar a circulação de objectos a
uma escala maior do que suponhamos. Trata-se não só de entender novos
e diferentes circuitos que ligavam a Ásia à América (e vice-versa) nos finais do
século XVI e durante o século XVII, como um mecanismo de encomenda que
se afigura cada vez mais complexo e multifacetado.
要約
いくつかの漆器やそれに関連する絵画、マカオやヌエバエスパーニャで
制作された屏風は幅広い人脈と取引ネットワークの存在の鮮やかな証で
1 This article is based on the Ph.D. thesis in History of Art submitted in Universidade Nova de
Lisboa Nuvens Douradas e Paisagens Habitadas. A Arte Namban e a sua circulação entre a Ásia
e a América: Japão, China e Nova-Espanha (c. 1550-c. 1700), to be published soon.
60
Alexandra Curvelo
ある。この遺産資料の分析は16世紀の後半から17世紀にかけてのアジア
とアメリカとの間の関係についての新たな疑問を発生させる。また、未
だに認識されていないより豊かな芸術支援の枠組みを証明する。
Keywords:
Namban, lacquer, folding screens, painting, Japan, China, New-Spain, circulation
Namban, laca, biombo, pintura, Japão, China, Nova Espanha, circulação
南蠻、漆、屏風、絵画、日本、中国、ヌエバエスパーニャ、流通
To better understand the artistic circulation between Japan, China (with
Macao as a centre) and the New-Spain, the Japanese lacquered oratories
with inlaid painting are a particularly relevant corpus. At the same time they
are emblematic of the artistic and living phenomenon triggered by the arrival
of the Portuguese in Japan in the 16th century: the namban art.
T. Watanabe tried to make an inventory, in a work made in the 1980,2
of all known pieces, presenting for the first time the templete in the Wolverhampton Art Gallery (belonging to the Wittelsbach family, at least since 1789);
that in the British Museum (in the museum collections since 1974) and two
kept in the Staatlisches Museum für Völkerkunde, in Munique. Previously,
in 1959, Martha Boyer had given notice of a specimen in the Archbishop
Museum of Utrecht, and in 1973 Jó Okada disclosed an oratory acquired in
Puerto Rico. Okada was the responsible for the acquisition in 1968 of a piece
presently kept in the Tokyo National Museum. In 1977 Hirokazu Arakawa
acquired the piece now present in Ricardo Espírito Santo Foundation, in
Lisbon, that together with the one kept in Santa Casa da Misericórdia at
Sardoal, constitute two important references within the Portuguese territory.
In the absence of any written documentation permitting to associate
a direct order of namban lacquered pieces in Portugal, the Sardoal oratory
assumes particular importance. Since its inscription, although belated, can
be considered as the oldest written evidence directly related to a namban
article known to this day.3 Being included in the Inventário Artístico de
2 T. Watanabe, “Namban lacquer shrines: some new discoveries”. Lacquerwork in Asia and
Beyond. A Colloquy held 22-24 June 1981. Ed. William Watson. London, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art; School of Oriental and African Studies, s.d., pp.194-210.
3 Maria Helena Mendes Pinto, Lacas Namban em Portugal. Presença portuguesa no Japão,
Lisboa, Edições Inapa, 1990, p.64.
The artistic circulation between Japan, China and the New-Spain
61
Santarém as an Indo-Portuguese lac-varnish work, thereby revealing that
these artefacts were unknown just a few decades ago, the oratory was originally at Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Caridade – Our Lady of Charity Church
(altar of Nossa Senhora da Esperança – Our Lady of Hope), as we may infer
from the inscription affixed in the altar where it was incrusted:
“Gaspar de Souza de Lacerda ordered this Lady of Hope with her
oratory to be put in this altar to be buried near him and so it was
done by his Wife D. Hyeronima de parada on 7 september 1670”.4
An oil painting on copper plate with a representation of the Virgin with
Child was put inside, what may refer to the painting practice of the Jesuit
seminary in Japan.5
Although some of these oratories display Christian symbols, thereby
pre-supposing an order of a religious nature, there are others of a strictly
secular character, such as the sample in the British Museum. In both cases,
the commissioners might be either Japanese or European,6 living inside or
outside the frontier lines of Japan. As noted by Impey and Jörg in relation
to the universe of namban lacquer-ware,7 the Portuguese looked for exotic
versions of familiar forms sellable in Europe and Asia. Thus, in this context,
4 “Esta Sra da Esperança com seu oratory mandou Gaspar de Souza de Lacerda por neste
altar por estar sepultado ao pé delle e a pos sua Mulher D. Hyeronima de parada em 7 de
setembro de 1670”.
5 Alexandra Curvelo, “Oratório” Cristo fonte de esperança. Exposição do grande Jubileu do ano
2000. Porto, Diocese do Porto, 2000, pp. 250-251.
6 At this stage it is of interest to consider the origin of namban pieces in European collections
and/or the collections in which they can be found. For a comprehensive view of this corpus,
vide Japanese Collections in European Museums. Reports from the Toyota Foundation Symposium,
Königswinter 2003. 2 Vols. Josef Kreiner (Ed.). Bonn, Bier’sche Verlagsanstalt, 2005. As a
thorough article accompanied by an exhaustive documental survey/assessment on European
collectionism and the circulation of exotica in Europe, a special reference is made to the work
by Pérez de Tudela; Gschwend, “Luxury Goods for Royal Collectors: Exotica, Princely Gifts and
Rare Animals Exchanged Between the Iberian Courts and Central Europe in the Renaissance
(1560-1612)”. Exotica. Portugals Entdeckungen im Spiegel fürstlicher Kunst- und Wunderkammern
der Rennaissance. Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorisches Museums Wien, Band 3. Mainz, Verlag Philipp
Von Zabern, 2001, pp. 1-127.
7 Olliver Impey; Christiaan Jörg, Japanese export lacquer 1580-1850, p. 11. On the application
of mother-of-pearl to namban lacquer, vide also Impey, “A Brief Account of Japanese Export
Lacquer of the Seventeenth Century, and its Use in Europe”. Japanische und europaische
Lackarbeiten: Rezeption, Adaption, Restaurierung: Deutsch-Japanisches Forschungsprojekt zur
Untersuchung und Restaurierung historischer Lacke, gefordert durch das Bundesministerium
für Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie / Japanese and European lacquerware:
adoption, adaptation, conservation. Michael Kuhlenthal (Hrsg.). Munich, Bayerisches Landesamt
für Denkmalpflege, 2000, p. 17; Filip Suchomel, “The Exportation of Japanese Lacquerware to
Europe”. A Surface Created for Decoration. Japanese Lacquer Art from the 16th to the 19th centuries,
Prague, The National Gallery in Prague, 2002, p. 21 [Exhibition Catalogue].
62
Alexandra Curvelo
namban can be understood as a synonymous of “exotic”. In this framework,
the folding-screens with the representation of kurofune, the namban-jin and
respective retinue (namban gyoretsu) in Nipponese territory also aimed at
satisfying the curiosity of a people who, as the Portuguese soon understood
“(...) are fond of novelty”,8 mainly an affluent patronage belonging to the
Japanese military class and to the merchant class, in a commissioning
scheme of complex outlines.
Within the scope of the painting production from the Jesuit seminary,
that is certainly behind the creation of some of the pictorial works associated
to the oratories,9 we may consider a subject that, as it appears to be, was
particularly treated in the works produced in this school – the subject of
“St Joseph with the Child” –, bearing in mind that, as from the CounterReform, the figure of Joseph, the worldly father of Jesus, became an example
of virtue because of his unselfish work and his continuous self-denial.10
Among the remaining specimens, let us consider the one belonging to the
collection of Fundação Oriente, in Lisbon.11 Made in wood with application
of lacquer and mother-of-pearl inlaid (raden), this oratory of a rectangular
shape is surmounted by a lightly convex horizontal panel, with two foldingdoors in the lower level to protect the central image. Decorated with gilded
lacquer (maki-e), their outer surfaces show birds and trees (namely Japanese camellias) framed with a mother-of-pearl band and a simple band (ishitatami). Inside, the zoomorphic and vegetal themes are repeated, although
the represented specimens are tangerine trees (tachibana) and cherry trees
(sakura), enclosed by bands with application of mother-of-pearl and gilded
lacquer. On its turn, the painting is framed by horizontal fillets decorated
with a minute geometric pattern (ishitami) with a star-shape motif. Outside,
the piece is decorated with thick foliage in gilded lacquer and mother-ofpearl inlaid work.
Although the oratory is in itself interesting due to its artistic and cultural
syncretism, it is however the central image – an oil painting on wood with
the representation of “Saint Joseph with Child in his arms” – that draws our
attention. The question already referred to about the source of paintings set
in namban oratories arises, in this case, with special relevance, as shown by
8 Luís Fróis, Historia de Japam. Vol.III, Chapter 25: “Do processo das cousas do Goquinau e do
seminario de Yazuchiyama”, Ed. José Wicki SJ. 5 Vols. Lisbon, Biblioteca Nacional, 1976‑1984,
p. 189.
9 In order to formulate more substantiated hypotheses it is essential to promote, in the near
future, the analysis of supports and pigments used.
10 Stefano Zuffi, Episodios y personajes del Evangelio, Barcelona, Electa, 2003, p. 50.
11 Alexandra Curvelo, “Oratório”. Museu do Oriente. Presença Portuguesa na Ásia. Testemunhos.
Memórias. Coleccionismo, Lisboa, Fundação Oriente, 2008, pp. 127-128.
The artistic circulation between Japan, China and the New-Spain
63
the selected iconography. We are, indeed, before a quite uncommon image
in the Portuguese pictorial tradition, but recurrent in the Spanish painting
and, consequently, in the Viceroyalties of New-Spain (with Saint Joseph as
their patron saint 12) and Peru. The image of Saint Joseph as a youth and not
as a man of old age is found associated with Hispanic mystic visions such as
those of Saint Teresa de Jesus. It is unquestionable that we are dealing here
with the transposition of an engraved model into another kind of support, all
the more that we can observe other similar examples.13
However, the representation of the sennin or wise men can also be found
in the Chinese figurative thematic presenting as one of the most popular
motifs Jurójin (Shou Xing), the immortal Taoist and the god of longevity and
successful study, who is represented as a (generally old) man with a child.
Since this is a theme greatly divulged during the Tokugawa period, at a time
when Chine programs were predominant,14 we might be again before a situation of double-sense iconographic approach, the convenience of which was
thus developed.
After the expulsion of missionaries from Japan, in 1614, the activity of
the seminary continued in Macao, a turn-table between inland China, Japan,
India, Insulindia, Europe, the Philippines and the New-Spain. Macao acted,
actually, as a real artistic-cultural centre in the fringes of the Portuguese
empire. It was mainly during the last two decades of the 16th century and
the first half of the 17th century that we assist to the hey-day of a town where
the presence of religious orders was the main driving force of this reality.
Among the different workers of this construction, excels the unpaired figure
of Matteo Ricci, a bridge linking Europe, Asia and Ibero-America.
In China, like in other places of the Padroado Português do Oriente
(Portuguese Ecclesiatic Patronage in the East), the mission lived in an almost
permanent shortage of material. Besides the cartographic specimens, there
was an absolute need to have books, instruments (in most part optical instruments) and images confirming not only the sound knowledge underlying the
knowledge of these European, but also their talent and skill in different areas.
If in the case of Japan, the Jesuit epistolography already continuously insists
in the need to send all kind of material to the mission, it is evident that in the
12 Santiago Sebastián, Contrareforma y barroco. Lecturas iconográficas e iconológicas, Contrareforma y barroco, Madrid, Alianza Editorial, S.A., 1985. (Col. Alianza Forma, 21), p. 192.
13 Magos y Pastores. Vida y arte en la América Virreinal. Leticia Arbeteta Mira (textos y
dirección), S.l., Ministerio de Cultura – Secretaría General Técnica, 2006, pp.120-125. I wish
to thank Carla Alferes Pinto for having drawn my attention to this image.
14 Adolf Ehrentraut, “Chinese Themes in the Sculptural Programmes of Shinto Shrines of the
Edo Period”, Contacts Between Cultures. Selected Papers from the 33rd International Congress of
Asian and North African Studies. Vol.3: “Eastern Asia: Literature and Humanistics”. Lewiston;
Queenston; Lampeter: Bernard Hung-Kay Luk; The Edwin Mellen Press, 1992, pp. 409-410.
64
Alexandra Curvelo
case of China this problem becomes sometimes the central subject of a great
number of letters written to Rome. The sending of a good mathematician, of
a good painter and someone expert in the art of watchmaker is suggested in
a very interesting letter sent by Manuel Dias to Claudio Aquaviva, written in
Macao on 12 December 1599. This document15 is a sort of reminder for an
embassy that the Jesuits from Macao intended to send to China. The retinue,
besides including experts in the art of calculation, painting and mechanics,
should include a whole panoply of objects and devices. Together with the
reference to sending of good quality oil paintings (a feature stressed in
different letters as an important condition for the material to be sent to this
mission), in this case a specific reference to the themes represented is made:
the “Virgin of Saint Lucas”, obviously, the “Assumption”, the “Adoration of
the Magi” and “majestic” saints. These were themes in consonance not only
with the taste of a learned elite but also with the type of response that could
be expected.
Books appear equally emphasized, even with an allusion to the Bible,
to the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by Abraham Ortelius, and printed maps, a
quite suggestive triad.
Among this list of above-mentioned pieces and tools, there is however
a category of objects that stays almost unnoticed. Nevertheless, and in the
context of this article, it acquires a considerable importance. I am referring
to that part where, in respect of those images that should be destined to the
King (Emperor) and the Queen (Empress) it is suggested: “(...) if some of
them [images] would come, shall they be made as the ones coming from
New‑Spain made of coloured plumage, as they would be very appreciated.”16
Contrarily to what might be assumed, we are not before a single act. As
a matter of fact, we found echoes of demands for featherworks (“plumária”)17
proceeding from the New-Spain in a number of letters sent by different Jesuit
missionaries.
Such demands came either from Japan or China, and both the span of
years and the material distance between the drafting and the source of some
15 Adolf Ehrentraut, “Chinese Themes in the Sculptural Programmes of Shinto Shrines of the
Edo Period”, Contacts Between Cultures. Selected Papers from the 33rd International Congress of
Asian and North African Studies. Vol. 3: “Eastern Asia: Literature and Humanistics”. Lewiston;
Queenston; Lampeter: Bernard Hung-Kay Luk; The Edwin Mellen Press, 1992, pp. 409-410.
16 “Viniessen algunas delas que se tiren de la nueua España hechas de plumage de diversos
colores serian muy estimadas”.
17 About feather works (“plumária”) in the context of the arts of the Vice-Kingdom of New‑Spain,
vide Ángeles Albert, “Artes Decorativas en el Virreinato de Nueva España”. Painting, Escultura
y Artes Útiles en Iberoamérica, 1500-1825. Ramón Gutiérrez (coord.). Madrid: Cátedra, 1995, in
particular pp. 317-322.
The artistic circulation between Japan, China and the New-Spain
65
of those letters18 attest the interest for such works coming from Mexico and,
we may well presume, were circulating through Asia where the Portuguese
were present. As it seems to be, such pieces were appreciated for their beauty
and mastery skill, in accordance, though, with the news we have about
the work achieved by Mexican artists dedicated to this art rooted in the
pre‑Hispanic world.
Other important documents witnessing to the circulation of the
“plumária” art with Christian themes in the context of the China mission
– containing information reaching far beyond what is summarized here – are
1617 inventories of the Jesuit Residence in Nanjing, made in the boisterous
context of anti-Christian persecutions of 1616-1617. The first of these inventories consists in two lists that mention a whole set of 224 items (equivalent
to about 1400 pieces), corresponding to those objects that had not been confiscated by the authorities. The first of such lists specifies 27 items (67 pieces),
all from western origin, starting with a reference to 4 “plumária” paintings
of the four seasons19.
Besides the written references appearing associated to “plumária”
paintings, we may add the specimens kept in different collections all over
the world. In this universe, we may point out the “Saint Hieronymus” in the
Museum für Völkerkunde in Vienna, Austria, dated back to the 16th century
and quite probably produced in Michoacán, Mexico,20 or the “Martyrdom
of Saint Stephen” that can be seen in Tokyo National Museum. In this latter
case, we are in the presence of a twofold meaningful work to the extent that
it is not only in a Japanese collection, but enclosed in a small lacquered
namban oratory. It is a single and unique specimen, since all other oratories
with enclosed images so far known to us contain oil paintings and not feather
compositions. However, there are some cases where the themes represented
in painting are rather connected with the Spanish and Ibero-American
context than the Portuguese and/or Luso-Asian world. We may recall the
iconography of “Saint Joseph with Child”, quite recurrent in the Spanish
painting and in the Vice-Royalties of New-Spain and Peru.
18 Cartas de Évora (CE), II, Letter from Pero Gomes, the Superior of Bungo, to Dom Teotónio
de Bragança, Archbishop of Évora, from Usuki, 8 November 1585, fl.168; Letter from Michele
Ruggieri and Francesco Pasio from Zhaoqing, dated 10 January 1583. Archivo General de las
Indias (AGI), Filipinas 79, N.11; Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI), Jap. Sin. 14-II,
Letter from Diego Pantoja to Father Diego Garcia, Provincial of the Society of Jesus in the Philippines, from Pekin, 6 March 1605, fls.199v-200.
19 Adrian Dudink, “The Inventories of the Jesuit House at Nanking made during the Persecution
of 1616-1617 (Shen Que, Nangong shudu, 1620). Western Humanistic Culture presented to China
by Jesuit Missionaries (XVII-XVIII centuries). Proceedings of the Conference held in Rome, October
25-27, 1993. Federico Masini (Ed.). Rome, Institutum Historicum S.I., 1996, pp.119-142.
20 Elke Bujok, Neue Welten in europaischen Sammlugen. Africana und Americana in Kunstkammern bis 1670. S.l., Dietrich Reimer Verlag GmbH, 2004.
66
Alexandra Curvelo
In our opinion, the excellent quality of some paintings found in namban
oratories may be linked not with Europe, India (Goa) or the painting Seminary directed by Niccolò, but rather, just as the “plumária” works, with
the context of New-Spain, a place of absolute continuity with its immediate reference: the Spanish painting of the so-called Siglo de Oro. We may
refer, in this connection, the important role performed either by the Spanish
painters in Mexico, namely Alonso Vázquez, who was active in Mexico
City between 1603-1608 expanding the mannerist vocabulary of Sevilha
painting, and Sebastián López, close follower of Francisco de Zurbarán, who
arrived there circa 1640, or by the countless works from the atelier of the
great Spanish painter sent to this territory, mainly all along the decades of
1630 and 1640.21 Equally documented and known are the relations between
Cristóbal de Villalpando (c.1649-1714) and Juan de Valdés Leal (1622-1690),
two outstanding names from both sides of the Atlantic.22 Furthermore, to be
noted that, with regard to some of these oratories with oil or feather painted
images, we may be before Works commissioned not only to Jesuits but also
to the Franciscan Order.
In a survey that is almost entirely unfinished, we sometimes find textual
references to the participation of Saint Francisco clergy in the works sent to
these missions. We are dealing here with few scattered notes not so much
due to the absence of references, but, we so believe, due to lack of archive
study.
Macao would have been the core place for the understanding of a
dynamics now outlined here. However, surprisingly, of all paintings presently
shown in the Museum built in the ancient crypt of Madre de Deus church,
as well as in the own Museu de Macau, located in the Fortaleza do Monte,
only one deserves to be emphasized: that representing the “Archangel Saint
Michel”, or rather, as Rafael Moreira clearly demonstrated,23 the “Archangel
Uriel”.
Further consideration will be given to this amazing painting. However,
the surprising lack of pictorial material of considerable quality in Macao
must be pointed out, a fact that not even the consultation of the inventory
21 Edward J. Sullivan, “European Paintings and the Art of the New World Colonies”. Converging
Cultures. Art & Identity in Spanish America. Diana Fane (Ed.). New York, The Brooklyn Museum,
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1996, pp. 28-41.
22���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
Maria Concepción Saíz, “Aproximaciones conceptuales sobre la painting colonial hispanoamericana”. Painting, Escultura y Artes Útiles en Iberoamérica, 1500-1825. Ramón Gutiérrez
(coord..). Madrid, Cátedra, 1995, pp. 85-86.
23 Rafael Moreira, “Uma Fachada-Retábulo em Macau”. in El Museo de Pontevedra, T. LIII.
Pontevedra, 1999, p. 163.
The artistic circulation between Japan, China and the New-Spain
67
of works kept in the Saint Joseph Seminary can surmount,24 This “gap” is
still more surprising in the light of references made to the painters who are
associated with Macao and the China mission,25 besides all documentary
references 26 attesting the decorative wealth of the interior of Madre de Deus,
which would reflect, even in part, the artistic production of that period at
painting and sculpture levels.
Flanking the high altar, whose altar-piece was similar to those existing
in India (that, on their turn, were inspired by the altar-piece in Escorial) there
were two chapels and two altars, one of them dedicated to Saint Michael.
From the Saint Michael altar, near which was buried Niva, its likely author,
the sole painting that came to these days is that representing Archangel Uriel,
a whole-length picture, brandishing a fire sword and holding an Eucharistic
monstrance. As Rafael Moreira sharply and cleverly suggested, this piece
shows “curious and entirely unexpected affinities with the “crioula” painting
of Mexico or the Cuzco school”.27
The central composition that would certainly depict Saint Michael
was probably one of the many paintings destroyed by the great fire in the
19th century. It is however important to recall this fact, since, in our opinion,
it completes the discourse present in the church façade itself. As a matter of
fact, this Archangel symbolizes a mission in God’s service, or, in Santiago
Sebástian’s words, a clear visualization of the triumph of the Catholic Church
over the Reform metaphorically represented by the fight headed by the Prince
of Angels.28
Michael, together with Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Barachiel, Jehudiel and
Seathiel, theophoric names since the suffix el means “God”, were thus understood as a holy army; this meaning was duly appropriated in imagetic and
symbolic terms by the Society of Jesus, the Order that assumed the role of
24 I am grateful to Francisco Vizeu Pinheiro and André Silveira for their best endeavours
regarding this survey, as well as to Fernando António Baptista Pereira, responsible for the inventory of this patrimony, for all information supplied later on, now in Lisbon. For a general overview of some paintings that were (and are) associated with the Saint Joseph Seminary, a building
where a substantial part of the movable property that was scattered following the extinction of
Religious orders in the 19th century was assembled, and where a non-official Museum of Sacred
Art was created for some years, vide Manuel Teixeira, “Painéis do Seminário de S. José”, Revista
de Cultura, N.º 3. Lisbon, Instituto Cultural de Macau, Oct./Nov./Dec. 1987, pp. 87-96.
25 For a general overview of the painters associated with the China mission, excluding foreign
bibliography referred to, please see the article by Gonçalo Couceiro, “Pintores jesuítas na China”.
Oceanos. N.º 12. Lisbon, Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, November 1992, pp. 92-101.
26 Vide, for example, BA, Jesuítas na Ásia, 49-V-22, Carta Ânua de 1691, fl. 70v.
27 Rafael Moreira, “Uma Fachada-Retábulo em Macau”, p. 163.
28 Santiago Sebástian, Contrareforma y barroco. Lecturas iconográficas e iconológicas,
pp. 155-156.
68
Alexandra Curvelo
a godly militia, or, in Lothar Knauth’s words, of the “praetorian guard of
Counter-Reform”,29 which cast the light of Christianity onto pagan and
heretic lands.
The free copy created by Jeronimus Wierix based on the fresco existing
in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Palermo, the oldest of all known
compositions of the seven archangels, that can be dated back to the transition from 15th century to 16th century, was decisive for spreading the angelic
iconography.30 To be noted that, to all appearances, it was precisely this
particular model that was used by Yamada Emosaku for the painting of “Saint
Michael” attributed to him, and that was in exhibition for several years in the
Sacristy of the Urakami Cathedral, in Nagasaki.
We are once more in the presence of an example of the fast and astonishing voyage of a model that, in a period of less than a century, travelled
from Sicily to Japan, China and Iberoamerica, circulating and asserting
itself in distinct contexts, thereby clearly reflecting the globalization that
took place during the Modern Age. Indeed, a brief survey of the remaining
corpus of Mexican painting and, in particular, of Peru Vice-Kingdom shows
that namely Saint Michael, as well as the group of archangels, in general,
assume quite a remarkable main role.31 With regard to the so-called “Cuzco
painting”, in a reference to a pictorial school with entirely original outlines,32
the “harquebusier” archangels appear as the true actors of a thematic that
prevailed over a significant part of the pictorial production of 1700s in this
Andean town.
However, when we observe the remaining American paintings with
depictions of this thematic, both those in Mexican public and private collections and Peruvian and Bolivian paintings, we find works coming chronologically after those made in Japan and Macao. As a matter of fact, within
the context of colonial painting in the New-Spain Vice-Kingdom, where
we find compositions whose stylish approach to the painting of “Archangel
Uriel” seems noteworthy, such as that in the Amparo Museum, in Puebla, we
observe that the most probable date of its production points to the transi-
29 Lothar Knauth, Confrontación Transpacífica. El Japón y el Nuevo Mundo Hispánico 1542‑1639.
México, D.F., Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas/Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México,
1972, p. 90.
30
Santiago Sebástian, Contrareforma y barroco. Lecturas iconográficas e iconológicas, p. 313.
31 See the following site of Museo Nacional de Arte de La Paz, where it is possible to make a
virtual visit to one of the vice-royal painting: http://www.mna.org.bo/; http://www.mna.org.bo/
vvpaintingvirreinal.html#
32 Pedro Querejazu Leyton, “La Pintura Colonial en el Virreinato de Perú”. Painting, Escultura
y Artes Útiles en Iberoamérica, 1500-1825. Ramón Gutiérrez (coord.), Madrid, Cátedra, 1995,
pp.159-176.
The artistic circulation between Japan, China and the New-Spain
69
tion from the 17th to the 18th century, whereas in the pictorial setting of the
Peruvian Vice-Kingdom, and in particular in the Cuzco nucleus, the situation
is quite similar. As a matter of fact, the group of “harquebusier” archangels
created for the Calamarca Church (Bolivia), 60 kilometres far from La Paz,
attributed to José López de los Rios,33 which constitutes the most complete
and, apparently, the most ancient set so far known in the Andes dates back to
1660-1680. The separation between Cuzco local craftsmen and the Spanish
masters of the painter’s guild that was aimed at establishing proper ateliers
that emerged as the nuclei of the “Cuzco School”, characterized by the use of
gold or gilded, native patterns and a flat design devoid of volume also dates
from the 1680s, more precisely 1688.
Therefore, the question arises on whether the influences traditionally
pointed out in relation to the full emergence and development of the Iberoamerican pictorial art, namely, the Spanish, Italian and Flemish influence,
gradually imbued with an Indian and/or mestizo mark,34 should not to be
seen in connexion with the influx of another stream proceeding from an
irradiating centre as Macao, with possible repercussions in India (in Goa,
in particular in the Seminary of Santa Mónica 35) and in the American ViceKingdoms.
33 Vide Santiago Sebastián, Contrareforma y barroco. Lecturas iconográficas e iconológicas,
p. 318.
34 Pedro Querejazu Leyton, op. cit., p. 159; Rogelio Ruiz Gomar, “La Pintura del periodo
virreinal en México y Guatemala”. Pintura, Escultura y Artes Útiles en Iberoamérica, 1500-1825.
Ramón Gutiérrez (coord.), Madrid, Cátedra, 1995, pp.113-138; Alexandra Kennedy Troya, “La
Pintura Colonial en el Nuevo Reino de Granada”. Pintura, Escultura y Artes Útiles en Iberoamérica, 1500‑1825. Ramón Gutiérrez (coord.), Madrid, Cátedra, 1995, pp. 139-157. Vide, for
example, the catalogue of the exhibition The Arts in Latin America 1492-1820, Philadelphia,
Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2006, namely, Cat. VI-74 e VI-75, pp. 422-423 and annexed chronology, pp. 518-519.
35 I wish to thank Professors Rafael Moreira and Nuno Senos for calling my attention to this
information after attending a lecture delivered by Professor Vítor Serrão in Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas of Universidade Nova of Lisbon, in May 2007, on paintings in Convento
de Santa Mónica, in Goa.