18th century system of racial hierarchy in eighteenth-century Mexico, by Ignacio María Barreda. Most sets of casta paintings were individual canvases showing only one family. During the colonial period, a mixture of
indigenous traditions and European influences (mainly due to the Christian teachings of
Franciscan,
Augustinian and
Dominican friars) produced a very particular Christian art known as
Indochristian art. In addition to
indigenous art, the development of Latin American visual art was significantly influenced by Spanish,
Portuguese, and French and Dutch
Baroque painting. In turn Baroque painting was often influenced by the
Italian masters. The
Cuzco School is viewed as the first center of European-style painting in the Americas. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Spanish art instructors taught
Quechua artists to paint religious imagery based on classical and
Renaissance styles. In eighteenth-century
New Spain, Mexican artists along with a few Spanish artists produced paintings of a system of racial hierarchy, known as
casta paintings. It was almost exclusively a Mexican form however, one set was produced in Peru. In a break from religious paintings of the preceding centuries, casta paintings were a secular art form. Only one known casta painting by a relatively unknown painter,
Luis de Mena, combines castas with Mexico's
Virgin of Guadalupe; this being an exception. Some of Mexico's most distinguished artists painted casta works, including
Miguel Cabrera. Most casta paintings were on multiple canvases, with one family grouping on each. There were a handful of single canvas paintings, showing the entire racial hierarchy. The paintings show idealized family groupings, with the father being of one racial, the mother of another racial category, and their offspring being a third racial category. This genre of painting flourished for about a century, coming to an end with Mexican independence in 1821, and the abolition of legal racial categories. In the seventeenth century, The Netherlands had captured the rich sugar-producing area of the Portuguese colony of Brazil (1630–1654). During that period, Dutch artist
Albert Eckhout painted a number of important depictions of social types in Brazil. These depictions included images of indigenous men and women, as well as still lifes. Scientific expeditions approved by the Spanish crown began exploring Spanish America where its flora and fauna were recorded. Spaniard
José Celestino Mutis, a medical doctor and horticulturalist and follower of Swedish scientist
Carl Linnaeus, led an expedition starting in 1784 to northern South America, the expedition is known as the
Expedición Botánica de Nueva Granada. Local artists were Ecuadorean Indians, who produced five thousand color drawings of nature, all being published. The crown chartered expedition whose purpose was scientific recording of the natural beauty and wealth of Nature, was a departure from the long traditional religious art. The most important scientific expedition was that of
Alexander von Humboldt and French botanist
Aimé Bonpland. They traveled for five years throughout Spanish America (1799-1804), exploring and recording scientific information as well as the attire and lifestyles local populations. Humboldt's work became an inspiration and template for continuing scientific work in the nineteenth century, as well as traveller reporters who recorded the scenes of everyday life. In 1818, the
Academy of San Alejandro in
Havana,
Cuba, was founded by Alejandro Ramírez, and the French painter
Jean Baptiste Vermay, served as the founding director. It is the oldest academy of art in Latin America.
Historiography of colonial art and architecture The history of Latin American art has generally been written by those with training in art history departments. However, the concept of "visual culture" has now brought scholars trained in other disciplines to write the histories of art. It became more prevalent through the later 1900's. As with the history of indigenous peoples, for many years there was a focus on either the pre-Columbian period (
Olmec,
Maya,
Aztec,
Inca) art production, then a leap to the twentieth century. More recently, the colonial era and the nineteenth century have developed as fields of focus. Visual culture as a field increasingly crosses disciplinary boundaries. Colonial architecture has been the subject of a number of important studies. Colonial art has a long tradition, especially in Mexico, with there being publications of
Manuel Toussaint. In recent years, there has been a boom in publications on colonial art, with some useful overviews being published in recent years. Many works deal exclusively with Spanish America. Major exhibitions on colonial art have resulted in fine catalogs as a permanent record.
Gallery File:Francisco de Toledo Virrey.jpg|Official portrait of Viceroy
Francisco de Toledo File:Atawallpa Pizarro tinkuy.jpg|
Guaman Poma de Ayala illustration of the meeting of
Atahualpa and
Francisco Pizarro File:Virgin of Carmel Saving Souls in Purgatory - Google Art Project.jpg|
Virgin of Carmel Saving Souls in Purgatory,. Peru. Circle of
Diego Quispe Tito, 17th century, collection of the
Brooklyn Museum File:Cusi Huarcay.jpg|
The Marriage of Captain Martin de Loyola to Beatriz Ñusta, detail, c. 1675–1690, Church of la Compañía de Jesús, Cuzco, Peru. File:Cuzqueña2.jpg|
Our Lady of Bethelem, Peru, anonymous, 18th century File:Conde de Superunda.jpg|Viceroy of Peru, Don
José Manso de Velasco, 1st Count of Superunda 18th c. File:Retrato de una señora principal con su negra esclava por Vicente Albán.jpg|Vicente Alban. Spanish woman and her black slave. Quito, 18th century File:Mestizo. Mestiza. Mestiza.jpg|
Mestizo, Mestiza, Mestizo Peruvian
casta painting, showing intermarriage
within a casta category. 18th c. File:Cabrera Pintura de Castas.jpg|
Miguel Cabrera (Mexico)
Casta painting, From Spaniard and Mulatta, Morisca. Oil on canvas. Private collection. 18th c. File:Dança dos Tapuias.jpg|
Albert Eckhout, Tupi (Brazil) dancing, 17th c. File:Mulher Africana.jpg|
Albert Eckhout African Woman in Brazil, 17th c. File:Aleijadinho-anjo.jpg|
Aleijadinho(Brazil):
Angel of the Passion, ca. 1799. Congonhas do Campo File:Zentralbibliothek Zürich - Ideen zu einer Geographie der Pflanzen nebst einem Naturgemälde der Tropenländer - 000012142.jpg|
Alexander von Humboldt (German) Drawing of volcano and climatic zones ==Nineteenth-century==