Tesoros/Treasures/Tesouros: The Arts in Latin America, 1492-1820 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is presenting a pan-national exhibition of some 250 works of art created in the Spanish viceroyalties of New Spain (which today comprises Mexico and the countries of Central America) and Peru (now the countries of Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and Peru), and in the Portuguese colony of Brazil.

Drawn from public and private collections throughout the Americas and in Europe, Tesoros/Treasures/Tesouros: The Arts in Latin America, 1492-1820 spans the centuries from the arrival of Columbus to the emergence of national independence movements, including spectacular examples of painting, sculpture, feather-work, shell-inlaid furniture, objects in gold and silver, ceramics and textiles.

On view September 20 - December 31, 2006, the exhibition is organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in collaboration with the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Following Philadelphia it will be on view in Mexico City from February until April 2007 and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from June until August 2007.

The panorama presented by Tesoros/Treasures/Tesouros: The Arts in Latin America, 1492-1820, is both thematic and chronological, beginning with Columbus’s first encounter with the people of the Caribbean and concluding with the final moments of the colonial era, a period marked not only by the independence movements and formation of national states but also by the rise of academic art. The richly diverse art forms subsequently produced throughout this vast region reflected the seismic changes that took place during the colonial era, and were central of the development of new identities.

The exhibition presents magnificent, sometimes startling, and largely unknown works of art in all mediums. It includes manuscripts and maps that illustrate how the earliest contact between Europeans and indigenous populations created a crisis in identity and self-representation, eventually leading to a new culture born of a mix of creative energies confidently expressed in the arts in novel mediums and styles.

On view are superb examples of craftsmanship - elaborate vestments decorated with colored feathers, exquisite furniture inlaid with tortoise shell, mother-of-pearl and ivory, lacquered screens and chests - that reflect the interchange between diverse Asian, African, European and Latin American cultures.

Although many of the objects were created by indigenous, mestizo and European artists and craftsmen whose names have been long forgotten, visitors will also become familiar with artists whose catalogues of works are well known in their native lands (Cristóbal de Villalpando in Mexico, Diego Quispe Tito in Peru, José Campeche in Puerto Rico, Aleijadinho in Brazil among them), but who will be new to the majority of exhibition visitors.

The exhibition is organized by Joseph J. Rishel, the Gisela and Dennis Alter Senior Curator of European Painting before 1900 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Suzanne Stratton-Pruitt, working with an international committee of scholars from the U.S., Spain, Mexico and Ecuador whose collaboration and research has been sponsored by the Getty Foundation, and with the additional advice of specialists from the many Latin American countries whose artistic heritage will be highlighted in this unprecedented exhibition.

The international tour of the exhibition is made possible by Fundación Televisa.

In Philadelphia, the exhibition is also supported by the Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, the National Endowment for the Arts, Popular Financial Holdings, the Connelly Foundation, The Annenberg Foundation Fund for Exhibitions, The Women's Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and generous individuals.

Initial scholarly research was supported by a Collaborative Research Grant from The Getty Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Fund for Scholarly Publications.

The exhibition is organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in collaboration with the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Image Credits:

Melchor Pérez Holguín (Bolivian, c. 1665-after 1732), Saint Pascual Baylon, Pray for Us; Saint Salvador de Horta, Pray for Us, c. 1720. Oil on canvas, 85 x 130 in. Museo Santa Teresa, Potosí, Bolivia.

Alterpiece of the Virgin of Sorrows (Mexico, c. 1690). Gilt and polychromed wood, oil on panel, oil on canvas, silver, cloth. 20 feet 2/ 5/16 in. x 13 feet, 11 7/16 x 29 1/8 in. Fundación Televisa A.C., Mexico City.

Artist/maker unknown (Peruvian), Christ Child of Huanca, c. 1600-1610. Polychromed wood with gilding, 32 5/16 x 16 3/4 x 8 11/16 in. Church of San Pedro, Lima, Peru.

All images courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art