Transcript Independence and its Heroes

Independence and its Heroes
Independence…remained by far the most important moment
for the new nations that emerged; representations of its
heroes and martyrs have become talismans or icons
signifying those beliefs, and reinterpreted with reverence, or
with irony, by artists in the twentieth century for whom national
or Latin American identity in cultural and political terms
remains an unresolved and therefore potent issue.
(Ades p.7)
• Added Assignment:
Read José Marti, “Our America,” 1891,
and one-page synopsis, “Mexican
Revolution, 1910” on course website
“Readings”
Antonio Salas (attributed), Portrait of Simon Bolivar (Venezuelan, 1783-1830),
1829, o/c, 23” x 18”
Bolívar gained independence for most of the northern part of South America
“It will be said that I have
liberated the new World,
but it will not be said that
I perfected the stability and
happiness of any of the
nations that compass it.”
Bolivar
Pedro José Figueroa, Simon Bolivar, Liberator and Father of the Nation, 1819, oil on
canvas, Quinta de Bolivar, Colombia; Indian woman as “America” or the New Republic
Circle of the Master of Calamarca, Lake Titicaca School, Cuzco, Peru,
Archangel with Gun, late 17th century, oil on cotton, 18 ½ in H
How does this image “renew” Catholic iconography? Interpret through Carolyn Dean “The
Renewal of Old World Images and the Creation of Colonial Peruvian Visual Culture”
Anonymous, Virgin of the Hill, before 1720, oil on canvas
Pachamama, Andean earth and creation goddess as Catholic Virgin Mary
“Both European and Andean traditions recognized supernatural activity on the part of
representations of, or objects associated with, divinity.” (Dean)
Francisco Tito Yupanqui (Andean), Our Lady of Copacabana, Bolivia, plaster
and fiber from the maguey tree, gold leaf, the garments reproduce the colors
and dress of an Inca princess. The original shape is permanently hidden by rich
robes and cloaks, and the carved hair has been covered by a wig. The image
of the Virgin measures over four feet with the features of the inhabitants of the
region.
“Powerful Catholic cults were
generated by native Andeans.”
Dean
(left) Claudio Linati, Miguel Hidalgo, from Costumes du Mexique, Brussels, 1828
(right) Juan O’Gorman (Mexican, 1905-1982), Portrait of Miguel Hidalgo, n.d., charcoal
on paper
Hidalgo, parish priest, initiated the indigenous uprising against Spain in 1810.
“Both culturally and economically, Independence was for the creoles, not the Indians.”
Academies and History Painting
“The Royal Academy of san Carlos in Mexico City, founded in 1785,
was the first academy of art in America, and the only one established
under colonial rule…. In Brazil, the Academia Imperial de Belas Artes
was founded in Rio de Janeiro…in 1826 with the French painter
J.B. Debret, who trained in David’s studio, as director…. In Peru,
the Academy was founded in 1919….” (coinciding with the arrival of
modern art)
(Ades)
Natalia Majluf, “Ce n’es pas le Peru,” or, the Failure of Authenticity:
Marginal Cosmopolitans at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1855”
“The movement of artists and intellectuals from Latin America to
metropolitan centers (and usually back) increased dramatically after
independence from Spain in the early nineteenth century…young
Creole Americans traveled to Paris, London, and Rome not as exiles or
émigrés but as cosmopolitans, as participants in a world culture.”
“…but the international community has systematically rejected any sign
of their sameness.” (Majluf)
Francisco Laso, The Indian Potter (or Dweller in the Cordilleria), 1855, o/c, 4’4” H., Lima
“The same comparative context that rejected
the cosmopolitanism of the Latin American
artists served simultaneously to locate
France at the very center of the international
art scene.”
Majluf
José Maria Obregón, The Inspiration of Columbus, 1856, oil, 58” high
José Maria Obregón, Columbus Before the Catholic Monarchs, 1850, o/c, 68” H
Juan Manuel Blanes, Paraguay: Image of Your Desolate Country, c.1880, oil, 40” H
José Maria Obregón, Discovery of Pulque, n.d., oil on canvas, 30” H
José Ferraz de Almeida Junior, The Guitar Player, 1899, o/c, 56” H, Sao Paulo
Genre painting, “costumbrismo
Traveler-Reporter Artists and the Empirical Tradition in
Post-Independence Latin American Art
(left) Escobar y Villaroel, Passiflora Mollisima, watercolor, Plate 37 from Flora de la Real
Expedicion Botanica del Nuevo Reyno de Granada, Vol. 27
(right) Johann Moritz Rugendas, Study of Palm Trees, c. 1831, oil sketch, IberoAmerikanishes Institut , Berlin
Carmelo Fernandez, (left) Meztizo Farmers of Anis, Ocana Province
(right) Notables of the Capital, Santander Province, Colombia , Colombia, 1850-9,
watercolor, National Library, Bogota
(left) Albert Edkhout, Tarairiu Woman, 1641, o/c, National Museum of Denmark
(right) Alexander von Humboldt, Vulture Gryphus, from Voyage de Humboldt, Paris, 1811
Typologies:
(left) Claudio Gay, Costumes of Country People, Physical and Political Historical Atlas of
Chile, Paris, 1854
(right) Juan Manuel Blanes, Dusk, n.d., o/cdbd, 9 ½ “ H
Nature, Science and the Picturesque
The captions in the above paintings say, top, "from mulato and mestiza, quadroon," bottom, "from
quadroon and mestiza, coyote." Identifications varied in different sets of "caste paintings." Some, for
instance, defined a "coyote" as an Indian and white mix without any African. The lack of a standard in
the naming, and the comic scenes, such as the baby getting her bottom cleaned above, strongly
suggests that the paintings were primarily intended for insult.
What was Stacie Widdifield’s thesis in
“Dispossession, Assimilation,
and the Image of the Indian in LateNineteenth-Century Mexican Painting”?
(left) Joseph Skinner, plate from The Present State of Peru, London, 1805
(right) C. Nebel, Indian Charcoal-Makers, from Voyage Picturesque and Archeological in
the Most Interesting Parts of Mexico, Paris, 1836
Daniel Egerton, Gust of Wind at the Summit, Izataccihuatl, o/c/masonite, n.d., 16” H
Frederick Catherwood, 2 plates from Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America,
Chiapas and Yucatan, 1844, Royal Institute of British Architects, London
(left) Jose Agustin Arrieta, Market Scene: La Sorpresa, 1850, o/c, Mexico City
(right) Edouardo Pingret, Waterseller, n.d., o/c, 23” H
Hermenegildo Bustos, Still Life with Fruit and Frog, 1874, o/c, 16” H
(right) Anonymous, ex-voto, 1834, o/c, 15”H
(left) Anonymous, ex-voto, 1885, o/brass, 14”H
Christiano Junior, Cartes de visite, 1860s, Rio de Janeiro; detail on right
Anonymous, Women of Lima, n.d., photograph, Lima
José María Velasco (1840-1912)
Velasco, (left) Cuernavaca Landscape, n.d., o/c
(right) Valley of Oaxaca, 1888
(left) Claude Lorraine (French, 1604-1682), Pastoral Landscape 1638
Velasco, Metlac Ravine, Viewed from near the Station in Fortin, 1897, o/c, 41” h
(right) anonymous photograph of Metlac ravine, 1910
Modernization
José Maria Velasco, Valley of Mexico from the Hill of Santa Isabel, 1877, o/c, 5’3”x7’6”
(right) Thomas Cole (English American, 1801-1848, Hudson River School) View from Mt.
Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm (The Oxbow), 1836
Posada and the Popular Graphic Tradition
(left) José Guadalupe Posada (Mexican, 1852-1913), Artists’ Purgatory
(right) J.J.Grandville (Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard, French, 1803-1847) Chamber of
Deputies, 1867, engraving
José Guadalupe Posada, Calavera of the Newspapers, 1889-95
type metal engraving, MoMA NYC
Posada, Streets of the City of Mexico on the Morning of 9 February 1913, n.d., zinc
engraving,
(right) Skeletons at a fractional price as never seen before in all of the Capital.