The Hawk

Issue date: 12/1/06 Section: Entertainment

Tesoros showcases many themes that were present, but previously unrecognized in Latin American art-not limited to religious art.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is presenting Tesoros, an exhibit covering Latin American art from 1492 until 1820, now until Dec. 31. It collects work from the colonized areas of Latin America, a region spanning the Southern United States all the way down to modern Chile and Argentina. The blending of cultures in the region makes these works both unique and interesting. In a showcase of paintings, ceramics, woodworking, and textiles, European influence from the Iberian peninsula mixes with indigenous, African, and Asian influence that created what the exhibit's curators call "a true globalization of people, goods, and ideas that introduced the 'modern world'."

The exhibit covers the first entry of Europeans to the new world, and European artists, through the 18th century, at which point the new world had established bustling metropolises and was producing its own artists. There are not any particularly famous names featured in this exhibit, perhaps dissuading casual art fans from visiting the exhibition. While it is true that there is nothing particularly groundbreaking in Tesoros (many of the impressive techniques had been mastered years before in Europe), it remains a thought-provoking display of cultures clashing and forging among themselves a new identity.

Religious artwork dominates the exhibit, and given the context, that is not entirely surprising. The great inroads made by the Spanish and Portuguese empires were largely facilitated by the evangelizing work of Catholic missionaries. Likewise, the Catholic Church was also the greatest patron of the arts in the new world. Each church desired a symbolic work of art, either wooden panels or large paintings, and in the early days of colonization, the church was the only organization large enough to financially support the arts in the new world.

It is also from religion that the indigenous artists, who began to supplant the European-born ones in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, derived much of their inspiration. The Virgin Mary was an extremely important subject and devotion to her was a common theme in much of the artwork. Additionally, the appearance of native miracles, such as the Virgin of Guadeloupe, provided local motivation and greater religious sentiment among both the European and indigenous artists.

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