Hansen/Curtis, 1/e, Ch



Visual Evidence: Casta Paintings

This activity corresponds to the "Visual Evidence: Casta Paintings" feature in your textbook. The questions below are designed to help you learn more about the topic. Once you have answered the Comprehension questions, submit your answers and move on to the subsequent questions included in the Analysis and Outside Sources sections. Each section is designed to build upon the one before it, taking you progressively deeper into the subject you are studying. After you have answered all of the questions, you will have the option of emailing your responses to your instructor.

Introduction

As you read in Chapter 18 of your textbook, colonial Latin American society was defined by a complex racial hierarchy that involved many gradations of mixed ethnicity. Artists, such as Miguel Carbrera, built their careers representing the daily life of mestizos and other mixed-race peoples in Spanish America. However, racial and cultural mixing was not only a subject of art. It came to define how art was produced in Spain's American colonies. Colonial artists drew from wide range of European and indigenous sources to create hybrid works that were far more than merely the sum of their parts. Below you will have an opportunity to explore this blending of cultures in the context of colonial architecture, as well as through additional examples of painting.

Comprehension

1. What is the typical subject of the casta painting?

2. What does the first example of Miguel Carbrera's art depict?

3. What does the second example illustrate?

Analysis

In Europe, the baroque style in art and architecture emerged during the seventeenth century and moved across the Atlantic to influence the architectural styles of Spanish America. The links below will take you examples of Spanish and colonial Spanish baroque religious architecture.

• Cathedral of Granada, Spain (late 17th century):

• Santiago de Compostella, Spain (18th century):

• Jesuit "Complex of Jesus" (late 17th century, in Arequipa, Peru):

• Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos, Bolivia (late 17th, early 18th c.): (click on images to enlarge)

1. Examine the images of the two baroque churches in Spain. What are their distinctive features?

2. Examine the images of the Complex of Jesus in Peru. How do these structures resemble the examples of Spanish baroque? What are the distinctively American elements?

3. Examine the images of Jesuit Missions in Bolivia. How do these structures combine European and indigenous forms?

Outside Sources

1. Go to and examine this representation of mestizo life in colonial Mexico. What does the image tell you about the status and livelihoods of mestizos?

2. Under the influence of the Church, Catholic religious art flourished in colonial Latin America. For a suggestive example, go to . How did the artist combine European and Andean traditions in this painting?

3. Examine the object at . How does this cup represent the culturally hybrid art of Spanish America?

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download