Treasures from the Hispanic Society

Mitchell A. Codding

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND PRESIDENT HISPANIC SOCIETY MUSEUM & LIBRARY

For many years the Hispanic Society Museum & Library has wished to present a traveling exhibition

in the United States with an extensive selection of works from all areas of its collections. While carrying out major renovations to our century-old main galleries and terraces, as well as the creation of a temporary exhibitions gallery, we are able at last to present such an exhibition, Visions of the Hispanic World: Treasures from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library. This represents the first time that such a large selection of our finest works has been exhibited at other museums in the United States. Visitors to the Albuquerque Museum, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston will have the rare opportunity to experience in person more than 200 treasures selected from the artistic, historical, and literary collections of the Hispanic Society, which in their totality exceed over 750,000 objects. We are thrilled to finally have the ability to share some of our many treasures with new audiences in the hope of inspiring, enriching, and educating the broadest and most diverse public about the enormously rich cultural heritage of Hispanic and Latin Americans.

Founded in 1904, the Hispanic Society Museum & Library was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2012 for its important role in changing the attitudes and understanding of Hispanic culture and Hispanic-American history in the United States. No other institution approaches the Hispanic Society in the breadth, depth, and quality of its collections spanning over 4,000 years, which constitute a comprehensive survey of the arts, history, and cultural heritage of the Iberian ­Peninsula and Latin America up to the twentieth century. The enormous wealth and complexity of the cultural heritage of Hispanics and Latinos only can be fully appreciated when viewed within the context of the convergence of numerous cultures over millennia, encompassing the Bell Beaker, Celtiberian, Roman, Visigothic, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian cultures on the Iberian Peninsula, whose legacies were enriched in their convergence with indigenous, African, and Asian cultures in the Americas.

A trip to Mexico in 1889 by the Hispanic Society’s founder Archer M. Huntington, his first direct experience with a Hispanic culture, served as the determining factor in his decision to create what is today the Hispanic Society Museum & Library. When writing his memoir for his mother in 1920, he recalled the impact that the Mexico trip had on the eighteen-year-old New Yorker: “ The trip to Mexico, short as it was, was a sort of strange awakening. . . . Mexico was a revelation. From books I had gathered impressions of it, and California had already given me broken bits of meaning, but when the reality suddenly came! This, of course, was my first encounter with ­something which was to fill my whole life, and all at once I felt a curious, feverish eagerness. In all the years to come I would be forever looking back at these days of discovery, short as they were, and quite aware that here I took my first step toward unguessed goals quite hidden from me but toward which I was instinctively drawn.

From now on the road was clear, and . . . my museum dreaming became clear and took on new forms. ”

We wish to thank the Albuquerque Museum, the Cincinnati Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston for their collaboration in making Visions of the Hispanic World: Treasures from the ­Hispanic Society Museum & Library available to their audiences, and we sincerely hope that they enjoy it as much as we do sharing it with them. Finally, we would like to acknowledge Philippe de M ­ ontebello, Chairman of the Hispanic Society’s Board of Trustees, for his initiative and commitment to organizing the exhibition from its inception.

Mitchell A. Codding

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND PRESIDENT HISPANIC SOCIETY MUSEUM & LIBRARY

For many years the Hispanic Society Museum & Library has wished to present a traveling exhibition

in the United States with an extensive selection of works from all areas of its collections. While carrying out major renovations to our century-old main galleries and terraces, as well as the creation of a temporary exhibitions gallery, we are able at last to present such an exhibition, Visions of the Hispanic World: Treasures from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library. This represents the first time that such a large selection of our finest works has been exhibited at other museums in the United States. Visitors to the Albuquerque Museum, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston will have the rare opportunity to experience in person more than 200 treasures selected from the artistic, historical, and literary collections of the Hispanic Society, which in their totality exceed over 750,000 objects. We are thrilled to finally have the ability to share some of our many treasures with new audiences in the hope of inspiring, enriching, and educating the broadest and most diverse public about the enormously rich cultural heritage of Hispanic and Latin Americans.

Founded in 1904, the Hispanic Society Museum & Library was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2012 for its important role in changing the attitudes and understanding of Hispanic culture and Hispanic-American history in the United States. No other institution approaches the Hispanic Society in the breadth, depth, and quality of its collections spanning over 4,000 years, which constitute a comprehensive survey of the arts, history, and cultural heritage of the Iberian ­Peninsula and Latin America up to the twentieth century. The enormous wealth and complexity of the cultural heritage of Hispanics and Latinos only can be fully appreciated when viewed within the context of the convergence of numerous cultures over millennia, encompassing the Bell Beaker, Celtiberian, Roman, Visigothic, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian cultures on the Iberian Peninsula, whose legacies were enriched in their convergence with indigenous, African, and Asian cultures in the Americas.

A trip to Mexico in 1889 by the Hispanic Society’s founder Archer M. Huntington, his first direct experience with a Hispanic culture, served as the determining factor in his decision to create what is today the Hispanic Society Museum & Library. When writing his memoir for his mother in 1920, he recalled the impact that the Mexico trip had on the eighteen-year-old New Yorker: “ The trip to Mexico, short as it was, was a sort of strange awakening. . . . Mexico was a revelation. From books I had gathered impressions of it, and California had already given me broken bits of meaning, but when the reality suddenly came! This, of course, was my first encounter with ­something which was to fill my whole life, and all at once I felt a curious, feverish eagerness. In all the years to come I would be forever looking back at these days of discovery, short as they were, and quite aware that here I took my first step toward unguessed goals quite hidden from me but toward which I was instinctively drawn.

From now on the road was clear, and . . . my museum dreaming became clear and took on new forms. ”

We wish to thank the Albuquerque Museum, the Cincinnati Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston for their collaboration in making Visions of the Hispanic World: Treasures from the ­Hispanic Society Museum & Library available to their audiences, and we sincerely hope that they enjoy it as much as we do sharing it with them. Finally, we would like to acknowledge Philippe de M ­ ontebello, Chairman of the Hispanic Society’s Board of Trustees, for his initiative and commitment to organizing the exhibition from its inception.

los Caballeros, Manuel Pérez de Guzmán y Boza, which he successfully purchased four years later; and to conduct excavations at the nearby site of the Roman city of Italica. Still in the process of defin­ ing the concept for his museum, he wrote to his mother: “ My collecting has always had for a background—you know—a museum. The museum which must touch widely on arts, crafts, letters. It must condense the soul of Spain into meanings, through works of the hand and spirit. ”12 Huntington at this time was beginning to think seriously about collecting paintings, but not in Spain, because of a self-imposed rule only to acquire the works of Spain’s Old Masters outside the Peninsula: Of pictures on this trip I shall have nothing to say, nor even time to look at them. . . . They are for another day. Moreover, as you know, I buy no pictures in Spain, having that foolish sentimental feeling against disturbing such birds of paradise upon their perches. Let us leave these beloved inspiration builders where they were born or dwelt, for to Spain I do not go as a plunderer. I will get my pictures, outside. There are plenty to be had.13

Huntington adhered to this rule throughout his life, at times to the detriment of his collection and to the benefit of rival collectors. In the end his policy did not place him at such a disadvantage since many of the paintings acquired in Spain by American collectors around the turn of the century ultimately proved to be either misattributions, copies, or outright forgeries.

On discovering that the French archaeologist Arthur Engel ( 1855–1935 ) had abandoned his ­excavations at Italica, Huntington arranged to lease the site and began his own excavations in January 1898. The treasures unearthed at Italica, an endeavor cut short by the outbreak of the ­Spanish American War, along with the objects acquired later from the excavations of George Bonsor ( 1855–1930 ) at Carmona, soon formed the nucleus of his archaeological collection. In 1898 Hunting­ ton kept defining his concept of the “ Spanish Museum. ” As he had hoped, his travels through Spain in 1892, 1896, and 1898 gave him new insights into the Spain that had escaped him in books. By 1898, he had come to the realization that his years of study on Hispanic culture had produced only a sterile, academic, and incomplete portrait of Spain. Through personal interaction with individuals from all levels of society, and in particular those of the countryside, Huntington felt that finally he had discovered the soul of Spain in its people.

Huntington spent the next six years in a flurry of activities, including the publication of some 40 facsimiles, although his primary focus remained the creation of his museum. Following the death of his father in 1900, he inherited the resources to make major acquisitions and to begin a serious collection of art. In January 1902 he purchased the much-coveted library of the Marquis of Jerez de los Caballeros, the finest private collection of early Spanish literature of the era. While aware that the acquisition of this invaluable library would inevitably be the subject of controversy in Spain, Huntington remained confident in his belief [ fig. 7 ].

His reluctance to begin collecting paintings up to this point appears to have been the lack of necessary resources to assemble an important collection of Spanish Old Master paintings, and an uncertainty of his connoisseurship of art, despite more than a decade of study and research. Writing from Seville in 1898, Archer expressed dismay over the time spent researching Spanish paintings: “ I have filled so many note books with futile words about pictures that I am almost ashamed at the time wasted. I say wasted because as long as I live I think I shall never write about pictures. You recall the long lines of critical books on the painters and their art in my library. ”14 Perhaps the most significant reason for his hesitance came from having observed his mother’s relations with art advisers and dealers whose friendship was based on profit. Arabella had already 22

M itchell A . C odding

F I G. 6

Library of Arabella D. Huntington with paintings

by Reynolds and Rembrandt, 57th Street & 5th Avenue, New York City, after 1907, New York, The Hispanic Society of America, Archive, Huntington Photos

fallen under the spell of the London dealer Joseph Duveen, who served as the principal agent for her most celebrated acquisitions, just as he did for other notable American collectors including Benjamin Altman, Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Mellon, and J. P. Morgan. Archer’s wariness of the pitfalls of the art market received immediate confirmation by way of an ill-fated acquisition from the Paris dealer Jacques Seligmann, on which he remarked: [ S ]ince my dispute with S. ( Seligmann ) about his picture—the one I returned—I have had more decent treatment from new dealers. But it is hard to make a dealer look on an American as anything but a gilded victim, ready for slaughter, and the boiling of his skin to extract the gold.

12

HSA Archive, AMH Diary, letter to Arabella D. Huntington, 1898.

13

Ibid.

Sometimes it is tiresome.15

Not surprisingly, he came to possess an inherent mistrust of all would-be advisers and dealers, and in particular Joseph Duveen, whose wiles he profiled in his diary:

14

Ibid.

15

Ibid.

The smooth immaculate Duveen, that weaver of promised distinction for wistful collectors, is the chief charmer of the picture business. His well-oiled courage knows no defeat. Few can resist

23

V isions of the H ispanic World

los Caballeros, Manuel Pérez de Guzmán y Boza, which he successfully purchased four years later; and to conduct excavations at the nearby site of the Roman city of Italica. Still in the process of defin­ ing the concept for his museum, he wrote to his mother: “ My collecting has always had for a background—you know—a museum. The museum which must touch widely on arts, crafts, letters. It must condense the soul of Spain into meanings, through works of the hand and spirit. ”12 Huntington at this time was beginning to think seriously about collecting paintings, but not in Spain, because of a self-imposed rule only to acquire the works of Spain’s Old Masters outside the Peninsula: Of pictures on this trip I shall have nothing to say, nor even time to look at them. . . . They are for another day. Moreover, as you know, I buy no pictures in Spain, having that foolish sentimental feeling against disturbing such birds of paradise upon their perches. Let us leave these beloved inspiration builders where they were born or dwelt, for to Spain I do not go as a plunderer. I will get my pictures, outside. There are plenty to be had.13

Huntington adhered to this rule throughout his life, at times to the detriment of his collection and to the benefit of rival collectors. In the end his policy did not place him at such a disadvantage since many of the paintings acquired in Spain by American collectors around the turn of the century ultimately proved to be either misattributions, copies, or outright forgeries.

On discovering that the French archaeologist Arthur Engel ( 1855–1935 ) had abandoned his ­excavations at Italica, Huntington arranged to lease the site and began his own excavations in January 1898. The treasures unearthed at Italica, an endeavor cut short by the outbreak of the ­Spanish American War, along with the objects acquired later from the excavations of George Bonsor ( 1855–1930 ) at Carmona, soon formed the nucleus of his archaeological collection. In 1898 Hunting­ ton kept defining his concept of the “ Spanish Museum. ” As he had hoped, his travels through Spain in 1892, 1896, and 1898 gave him new insights into the Spain that had escaped him in books. By 1898, he had come to the realization that his years of study on Hispanic culture had produced only a sterile, academic, and incomplete portrait of Spain. Through personal interaction with individuals from all levels of society, and in particular those of the countryside, Huntington felt that finally he had discovered the soul of Spain in its people.

Huntington spent the next six years in a flurry of activities, including the publication of some 40 facsimiles, although his primary focus remained the creation of his museum. Following the death of his father in 1900, he inherited the resources to make major acquisitions and to begin a serious collection of art. In January 1902 he purchased the much-coveted library of the Marquis of Jerez de los Caballeros, the finest private collection of early Spanish literature of the era. While aware that the acquisition of this invaluable library would inevitably be the subject of controversy in Spain, Huntington remained confident in his belief [ fig. 7 ].

His reluctance to begin collecting paintings up to this point appears to have been the lack of necessary resources to assemble an important collection of Spanish Old Master paintings, and an uncertainty of his connoisseurship of art, despite more than a decade of study and research. Writing from Seville in 1898, Archer expressed dismay over the time spent researching Spanish paintings: “ I have filled so many note books with futile words about pictures that I am almost ashamed at the time wasted. I say wasted because as long as I live I think I shall never write about pictures. You recall the long lines of critical books on the painters and their art in my library. ”14 Perhaps the most significant reason for his hesitance came from having observed his mother’s relations with art advisers and dealers whose friendship was based on profit. Arabella had already 22

M itchell A . C odding

F I G. 6

Library of Arabella D. Huntington with paintings

by Reynolds and Rembrandt, 57th Street & 5th Avenue, New York City, after 1907, New York, The Hispanic Society of America, Archive, Huntington Photos

fallen under the spell of the London dealer Joseph Duveen, who served as the principal agent for her most celebrated acquisitions, just as he did for other notable American collectors including Benjamin Altman, Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Mellon, and J. P. Morgan. Archer’s wariness of the pitfalls of the art market received immediate confirmation by way of an ill-fated acquisition from the Paris dealer Jacques Seligmann, on which he remarked: [ S ]ince my dispute with S. ( Seligmann ) about his picture—the one I returned—I have had more decent treatment from new dealers. But it is hard to make a dealer look on an American as anything but a gilded victim, ready for slaughter, and the boiling of his skin to extract the gold.

12

HSA Archive, AMH Diary, letter to Arabella D. Huntington, 1898.

13

Ibid.

Sometimes it is tiresome.15

Not surprisingly, he came to possess an inherent mistrust of all would-be advisers and dealers, and in particular Joseph Duveen, whose wiles he profiled in his diary:

14

Ibid.

15

Ibid.

The smooth immaculate Duveen, that weaver of promised distinction for wistful collectors, is the chief charmer of the picture business. His well-oiled courage knows no defeat. Few can resist

23

V isions of the H ispanic World

FORGED IRONWORK

The Hispanic Society’s collection of ironwork, numbering some 300 major pieces and sets ( knockers, door pulls, lock and lockplate sets, etc. ), as well as several hundred individual minor parts ( mostly nails, nail heads, bosses, etc. ), was largely acquired in 1906 from Lionel Harris of The Spanish Art Gallery, London. A smaller number of pre-medieval iron antiquities came in as purchases and gifts from archaeologists and collectors, such as Antonio Vives y Escudero. In 1907 Lionel Harris acquired another large collection of ironwork, one formed

by Nicolás Duque, Segovia ( documented by Byne and Stapley 1915, p. 58 ), which he offered to Archer Huntington, who declined since the collection would not have added significantly to the one he already had purchased.

The collection acquired by Huntington had largely lost their contexts, a common problem with all similar collections, so early efforts at dating and identification of their regional origin had to rely on somewhat impressionistic comparisons to objects in other contemporary collections, such as those of the Conde de Valencia de Don Juan in Madrid, the collection of Santiago Rusiñol ( 1861–1931 ) at his Cau Ferrat museum in Sitges, and regional collections such as the museum at Vic in Catalonia. The relatively slow advance of scholarship on Spanish ironwork, outside of decorative grilles ( rejas ) and architectural ironwork, continues to make precise dating difficult. MB

Galdácano and Luis Pérez Bueno both point out the popular arts aspect of the bird figure, as they assign dates in both the 15th and 16th centuries. In the present example, the animating punch work, including the almost fingernail-like semi-circular forms creating the bird’s plumage and the semi-­circle and dot forms running along the edge of the back plate, suggest a blacksmith with a keen eye for detail. MB

49

Door Knocker with a Dragon Head ( one of a pair ) Castile ( Toledo? ), 16th or early 17th century Iron, plate 18.4 × 33.5 × 11 cm, hammer 22.2 cm New York, The Hispanic Society of America, R73 P R OV E NA N C E : Lionel Harris, The Spanish Art Gallery, London, 1906 ; acquired by Archer M. Huntington, New York, for The Hispanic ­Society of America, 1906 B I B L I O G R A P H Y: Durand 1938, pp. 226–27 ; Codding ( ed. ) 2017, p. 151, no. 49 ; Codding ( ed. ) 2018, p. 139, no. 49

Cat. 49

48

Door Knocker with a Bird ca. 1500 Iron, plate 34.5 × 14.2 cm, hammer 24.9 cm New York, The Hispanic Society of America, R55 P R OV E NA N C E : Lionel Harris, The Spanish Art Gallery, London, 1906 ; acquired by Archer M. Huntington, New York, for The Hispanic ­Society of America, 1906 B I B L I O G R A P H Y: Byne and Stapley 1915, p. 52, fig. 56 ; Durand 1938, p. 220 ; ( comparative objects: Artíñano y Galdácano 1919, pp. 136–37, nos. 423–25 ; Pérez Bueno 1925, p. xl, fig. 58 ) ; Codding ( ed. ) 2017, pp. 150–51, no. 48 ; Codding ( ed. ) 2018, pp. 138–39, no. 48

Cat. 48

100

M E D I E VA L S PA I N

Bird motifs of this type are relatively common in Spanish ironwork, especially in collections associated with Eastern Spain. Pedro Miguel Artíñano y

101

This robust object combines a Mudéjar oval hammer ring with a diagonal cross-section, animated on the resulting flat surfaces with two bands of zigzag dotted punchwork separated by a punched dotted line.

Two heart-shaped forms at the bottom on the inside of the ring are piled on one another, pointing up to a wolf-like dragon’s head that serves as the hinge for the ring. Square terminal posts mark the end of the ring on either side of the dragon’s head. The wall plate is a cross fleury augmented by swirling strapwork forms with incised lines. While the Mudéjar elements of the ring argue for a date before 1600 ( Anne Sawyer Durand dated it 1470–1530 ), the robust forms of the plate look forward to the Baroque.

Pairs of superior door pulls ( designed to be grabbed from horseback ) on large exterior doors would take the same form, although two monumental door knockers of this type would certainly have added cachet to the entrance of a noble house. Durand cites comparative works associated with Toledo. MB

M E D I E VA L S PA I N

FORGED IRONWORK

The Hispanic Society’s collection of ironwork, numbering some 300 major pieces and sets ( knockers, door pulls, lock and lockplate sets, etc. ), as well as several hundred individual minor parts ( mostly nails, nail heads, bosses, etc. ), was largely acquired in 1906 from Lionel Harris of The Spanish Art Gallery, London. A smaller number of pre-medieval iron antiquities came in as purchases and gifts from archaeologists and collectors, such as Antonio Vives y Escudero. In 1907 Lionel Harris acquired another large collection of ironwork, one formed

by Nicolás Duque, Segovia ( documented by Byne and Stapley 1915, p. 58 ), which he offered to Archer Huntington, who declined since the collection would not have added significantly to the one he already had purchased.

The collection acquired by Huntington had largely lost their contexts, a common problem with all similar collections, so early efforts at dating and identification of their regional origin had to rely on somewhat impressionistic comparisons to objects in other contemporary collections, such as those of the Conde de Valencia de Don Juan in Madrid, the collection of Santiago Rusiñol ( 1861–1931 ) at his Cau Ferrat museum in Sitges, and regional collections such as the museum at Vic in Catalonia. The relatively slow advance of scholarship on Spanish ironwork, outside of decorative grilles ( rejas ) and architectural ironwork, continues to make precise dating difficult. MB

Galdácano and Luis Pérez Bueno both point out the popular arts aspect of the bird figure, as they assign dates in both the 15th and 16th centuries. In the present example, the animating punch work, including the almost fingernail-like semi-circular forms creating the bird’s plumage and the semi-­circle and dot forms running along the edge of the back plate, suggest a blacksmith with a keen eye for detail. MB

49

Door Knocker with a Dragon Head ( one of a pair ) Castile ( Toledo? ), 16th or early 17th century Iron, plate 18.4 × 33.5 × 11 cm, hammer 22.2 cm New York, The Hispanic Society of America, R73 P R OV E NA N C E : Lionel Harris, The Spanish Art Gallery, London, 1906 ; acquired by Archer M. Huntington, New York, for The Hispanic ­Society of America, 1906 B I B L I O G R A P H Y: Durand 1938, pp. 226–27 ; Codding ( ed. ) 2017, p. 151, no. 49 ; Codding ( ed. ) 2018, p. 139, no. 49

Cat. 49

48

Door Knocker with a Bird ca. 1500 Iron, plate 34.5 × 14.2 cm, hammer 24.9 cm New York, The Hispanic Society of America, R55 P R OV E NA N C E : Lionel Harris, The Spanish Art Gallery, London, 1906 ; acquired by Archer M. Huntington, New York, for The Hispanic ­Society of America, 1906 B I B L I O G R A P H Y: Byne and Stapley 1915, p. 52, fig. 56 ; Durand 1938, p. 220 ; ( comparative objects: Artíñano y Galdácano 1919, pp. 136–37, nos. 423–25 ; Pérez Bueno 1925, p. xl, fig. 58 ) ; Codding ( ed. ) 2017, pp. 150–51, no. 48 ; Codding ( ed. ) 2018, pp. 138–39, no. 48

Cat. 48

100

M E D I E VA L S PA I N

Bird motifs of this type are relatively common in Spanish ironwork, especially in collections associated with Eastern Spain. Pedro Miguel Artíñano y

101

This robust object combines a Mudéjar oval hammer ring with a diagonal cross-section, animated on the resulting flat surfaces with two bands of zigzag dotted punchwork separated by a punched dotted line.

Two heart-shaped forms at the bottom on the inside of the ring are piled on one another, pointing up to a wolf-like dragon’s head that serves as the hinge for the ring. Square terminal posts mark the end of the ring on either side of the dragon’s head. The wall plate is a cross fleury augmented by swirling strapwork forms with incised lines. While the Mudéjar elements of the ring argue for a date before 1600 ( Anne Sawyer Durand dated it 1470–1530 ), the robust forms of the plate look forward to the Baroque.

Pairs of superior door pulls ( designed to be grabbed from horseback ) on large exterior doors would take the same form, although two monumental door knockers of this type would certainly have added cachet to the entrance of a noble house. Durand cites comparative works associated with Toledo. MB

M E D I E VA L S PA I N

121

Giovanni Vespucci ( Florence, 1486–after 1527 )

World Map Seville, 1526 Ink and color on four sheets of parchment, 85 × 262 cm New York, The Hispanic Society of America, K42 P R OV E NA N C E : Bernard Quaritch, London, 1914 ; acquired by Archer M. Huntington, New York, for The Hispanic Society of America, 1914 B I B L I O G R A P H Y: Quaritch 1914, pp. 1–8 ; Hispanic Society of America 1925 ; Hispanic Society of America 1938, pp. 318–[ 319 ] ; Hispanic ­Society of America 1954, pp. 397–98, 403, fig. 300 ; Cortesão and Teixeira da Mota 1960, pl. 613 ; Nebenzahl 1990, pp. 84–87 ; Sider et al.

1992, pp. 13–14, 16 ; Vespucci 1999 ; Lenaghan et al. ( eds. ) 2000, pp. 196–99, no. 43 ; Ecker 2004, pp. 112–15, 163–64 ; Codding et al.

2004, p. 32 ; Sandman 2007, Appendix fig. 30.27 ; Codding ( ed. ) 2017, pp. 250–53, no. 118 ; Codding ( ed. ) 2018, pp. 242–45, no. 121

The world map, or planisphere, by Giovanni ( Juan ) Vespucci is one of the most impressive nautical charts produced during the Age of Exploration.

Juan Vespucci was the nephew of Amerigo ­Vespucci ( 1454–1512 ), the Florentine explorer, navigator, and cartographer appointed as the first pilot major of the Casa de Contratación in Seville in 1508. Established in 1503 by Queen Isabella, the Casa de Contratación was responsible for overseeing all exploration, colonization, and commerce between Spain and its rapidly expanding empire in the Americas.

One of its most important functions was to maintain and update a master nautical chart, the padrón real, from which copies were made for pilots sailing to the Americas. As pilot major, one of the first t­ asks assigned to Amerigo Vespucci was to produce the first padrón real.

Upon the death of his uncle in 1512, Juan Vespucci, an experienced pilot and cartographer, inherited all of his uncle’s charts, maps, and navigational instruments ( Cerezo Martínez 1994, p. 137 ). In 1512 he was appointed pilot of the Casa de Contratación, was licensed to sell copies of the padrón real to pilots, and was commissioned to assist the new pilot major Juan Díaz de Solís in revising the padrón real ( Sandman 2007, pp. 1132, 1139 ). In 1515 his friend Pietro Martire d’Anghiera ( 1457–1526 ), the Italian historian who wrote the first history of the Spanish discoveries in the Americas, recounted that Juan Vespucci had served as pilot of the flagship of the colonizing expedition to Panama led by Pedro Arias ( Pedrarias ) Dávila in 1514 ( An-

205

ghiera 1912, p. 138 ). When the Junta de Badajoz-­ Elvas was convened in 1524 to resolve the dispute on the location of the Line of Demarcation established in the Treaty of Tordesillas ( 1494 ) that divided claims to newly discovered lands between Spain and Portugal, Vespucci was sent as one of the Spanish experts along with Hernando Colón, Sebastian Cabot, and Juan Sebastián Elcano ( Cerezo Martínez 1994, p. 178 n. 50 ). Vespucci was relieved of his post at the Casa de Contratación in 1525 for having served as a spy for the Medici in Florence ( Varela 1988, p. 80 ), yet on 26 June 1526, he was appointed by royal decree an examiner of pilots in substitution for the pilot major Sebastian Cabot during his absence, although there is no record that he served in this capacity ( Sevilla, Archivo General de Indias [ AGI ], Indiferente, 421, L. 11, fol. 62r–62v ). On 14 September 1526, the Council of the Indies confirmed a license for Vespucci and Francisco Lizaur to take two caravels to “ las perlas, ” the Pearl Coast of eastern Venezuela and the island of Cubagua ( AGI, Indiferente, 421, L. 11, fol. 186v–87r ), and again on 29 March 1527, granted a license to Juan Vespucci for an unarmed caravel to travel to the Indies in the company of other vessels ( AGI, Indiferente, 421, L. 12, fol. 50r ). After this date there is no further record of him.

Vespucci’s World Map of 1526 is an ornate copy of the padrón real and probably was intended as a gift for Charles V on his marriage to Isabella of ­Portugal on 10 March 1526, in Seville. The chart bears the Habsburg coat-of-arms of Charles V above

V I C E R E G A L A N D 19 T H - C E N T U RY L AT I N A M E R I C A

121

Giovanni Vespucci ( Florence, 1486–after 1527 )

World Map Seville, 1526 Ink and color on four sheets of parchment, 85 × 262 cm New York, The Hispanic Society of America, K42 P R OV E NA N C E : Bernard Quaritch, London, 1914 ; acquired by Archer M. Huntington, New York, for The Hispanic Society of America, 1914 B I B L I O G R A P H Y: Quaritch 1914, pp. 1–8 ; Hispanic Society of America 1925 ; Hispanic Society of America 1938, pp. 318–[ 319 ] ; Hispanic ­Society of America 1954, pp. 397–98, 403, fig. 300 ; Cortesão and Teixeira da Mota 1960, pl. 613 ; Nebenzahl 1990, pp. 84–87 ; Sider et al.

1992, pp. 13–14, 16 ; Vespucci 1999 ; Lenaghan et al. ( eds. ) 2000, pp. 196–99, no. 43 ; Ecker 2004, pp. 112–15, 163–64 ; Codding et al.

2004, p. 32 ; Sandman 2007, Appendix fig. 30.27 ; Codding ( ed. ) 2017, pp. 250–53, no. 118 ; Codding ( ed. ) 2018, pp. 242–45, no. 121

The world map, or planisphere, by Giovanni ( Juan ) Vespucci is one of the most impressive nautical charts produced during the Age of Exploration.

Juan Vespucci was the nephew of Amerigo ­Vespucci ( 1454–1512 ), the Florentine explorer, navigator, and cartographer appointed as the first pilot major of the Casa de Contratación in Seville in 1508. Established in 1503 by Queen Isabella, the Casa de Contratación was responsible for overseeing all exploration, colonization, and commerce between Spain and its rapidly expanding empire in the Americas.

One of its most important functions was to maintain and update a master nautical chart, the padrón real, from which copies were made for pilots sailing to the Americas. As pilot major, one of the first t­ asks assigned to Amerigo Vespucci was to produce the first padrón real.

Upon the death of his uncle in 1512, Juan Vespucci, an experienced pilot and cartographer, inherited all of his uncle’s charts, maps, and navigational instruments ( Cerezo Martínez 1994, p. 137 ). In 1512 he was appointed pilot of the Casa de Contratación, was licensed to sell copies of the padrón real to pilots, and was commissioned to assist the new pilot major Juan Díaz de Solís in revising the padrón real ( Sandman 2007, pp. 1132, 1139 ). In 1515 his friend Pietro Martire d’Anghiera ( 1457–1526 ), the Italian historian who wrote the first history of the Spanish discoveries in the Americas, recounted that Juan Vespucci had served as pilot of the flagship of the colonizing expedition to Panama led by Pedro Arias ( Pedrarias ) Dávila in 1514 ( An-

205

ghiera 1912, p. 138 ). When the Junta de Badajoz-­ Elvas was convened in 1524 to resolve the dispute on the location of the Line of Demarcation established in the Treaty of Tordesillas ( 1494 ) that divided claims to newly discovered lands between Spain and Portugal, Vespucci was sent as one of the Spanish experts along with Hernando Colón, Sebastian Cabot, and Juan Sebastián Elcano ( Cerezo Martínez 1994, p. 178 n. 50 ). Vespucci was relieved of his post at the Casa de Contratación in 1525 for having served as a spy for the Medici in Florence ( Varela 1988, p. 80 ), yet on 26 June 1526, he was appointed by royal decree an examiner of pilots in substitution for the pilot major Sebastian Cabot during his absence, although there is no record that he served in this capacity ( Sevilla, Archivo General de Indias [ AGI ], Indiferente, 421, L. 11, fol. 62r–62v ). On 14 September 1526, the Council of the Indies confirmed a license for Vespucci and Francisco Lizaur to take two caravels to “ las perlas, ” the Pearl Coast of eastern Venezuela and the island of Cubagua ( AGI, Indiferente, 421, L. 11, fol. 186v–87r ), and again on 29 March 1527, granted a license to Juan Vespucci for an unarmed caravel to travel to the Indies in the company of other vessels ( AGI, Indiferente, 421, L. 12, fol. 50r ). After this date there is no further record of him.

Vespucci’s World Map of 1526 is an ornate copy of the padrón real and probably was intended as a gift for Charles V on his marriage to Isabella of ­Portugal on 10 March 1526, in Seville. The chart bears the Habsburg coat-of-arms of Charles V above

V I C E R E G A L A N D 19 T H - C E N T U RY L AT I N A M E R I C A

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Royal Ceramic Factory of Alcora

Plate with Scenes of France Alcora, Castellón, 1749–84 Tin-glazed earthenware, 2.9 × 24.4 cm Inscribed on verso: “ M.r. Le Cheualier de Barrau. ” New York, The Hispanic Society of America, LE1893 P R OV E NA N C E : Alexandre Léon, Bordeaux, to 1896 ; Bordes Collection, Bordeaux, before 1919 ; E. Pisani, France, ca. 1919 ; Paul Blancan, Paris, before 1924 ; B.L. Collection, Paris, to 1999 ; Michel Vandermeersch, Paris, 1999 ; purchased by The Hispanic Society of America, 1999 B I B L I O G R A P H Y: Léon 1896, p. 17, no. 174, pl. before p. 13 ; Blancan 1924, p. 6, no. 6, pl. 18-6 ; Escrivá de Romaní 1945, p. 80, pl. XLI ; Cerámica de Alcora 1989, p. 73 ; McQuade 2000a, p. 15 ; McQuade 2000b, p. 882 ; McQuade, José i Pitarch, and Pérez García 2005, pp. 278–81 ; Codding ( ed. ) 2017, pp. 321–22, no. 160 ; Codding ( ed. ) 2018, pp. 343–44, no. 181

According to Manuel Escrivá de Romaní de la Quintana, Conde de Casal, who first published a history of the Royal Ceramic Factory of Alcora in 1919, this small lobed dessert plate is “ one of the best pieces produced by the factory. ” The plate is unique not only for its superb miniature paintings of sites in France, but also for its departure from the more common mythological, allegorical and religious subjects. With the floral bouquet at the center situated upright, the view of Paris with Notre-Dame de Paris from the Pont de la Tournelle stands prominently at the base. The other two scenes depict the palace of Versailles, the principle residence of the French monarchs from Louis XIV to Louis XVI ; and a

Cat. 170

who perform acts of punishment. Nieuhof’s kneeling man is depicted with his head on fire ; the corresponding figure on the tray, however, is portrayed kneeling without the fire or smoke. The man lying prone on the ground with his head in a pillory replicates the figure almost exactly as it appears in Mendians.

Joseph Olérys ( 1697–1749 ), a French ceramist trained in Moustiers who was hired in 1726 to set up the workshop, is believed to have first introduced the Chinese series to the factory. Chinese-style ware became one of the most popular series to be produced at Alcora and remains one of the most sought-after

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styles by collectors today. In 1737, after over a decade working at the factory, Olérys returned to Moustiers where he introduced the Chinese series that helped earn him fame as one of the most celebrated French ceramists of the 18th century. Miguel Soliva ( active 1732–1751 ), who replaced Olérys as artistic director of the factory, is believed to have further developed the C ­ hinese decoration at Alcora by introducing additional colors and originality to the overall design.

A tray in the collection of the Museu de Ceràmica in Barcelona ( now in the Museu del Disseny, ­Barcelona ) follows the same form, but the decoration shows a later development of the Chinese style. MCM

T H E E N L I G H T E N M E N T I N S PA I N

291

T H E E N L I G H T E N M E N T I N S PA I N

171

Royal Ceramic Factory of Alcora

Plate with Scenes of France Alcora, Castellón, 1749–84 Tin-glazed earthenware, 2.9 × 24.4 cm Inscribed on verso: “ M.r. Le Cheualier de Barrau. ” New York, The Hispanic Society of America, LE1893 P R OV E NA N C E : Alexandre Léon, Bordeaux, to 1896 ; Bordes Collection, Bordeaux, before 1919 ; E. Pisani, France, ca. 1919 ; Paul Blancan, Paris, before 1924 ; B.L. Collection, Paris, to 1999 ; Michel Vandermeersch, Paris, 1999 ; purchased by The Hispanic Society of America, 1999 B I B L I O G R A P H Y: Léon 1896, p. 17, no. 174, pl. before p. 13 ; Blancan 1924, p. 6, no. 6, pl. 18-6 ; Escrivá de Romaní 1945, p. 80, pl. XLI ; Cerámica de Alcora 1989, p. 73 ; McQuade 2000a, p. 15 ; McQuade 2000b, p. 882 ; McQuade, José i Pitarch, and Pérez García 2005, pp. 278–81 ; Codding ( ed. ) 2017, pp. 321–22, no. 160 ; Codding ( ed. ) 2018, pp. 343–44, no. 181

According to Manuel Escrivá de Romaní de la Quintana, Conde de Casal, who first published a history of the Royal Ceramic Factory of Alcora in 1919, this small lobed dessert plate is “ one of the best pieces produced by the factory. ” The plate is unique not only for its superb miniature paintings of sites in France, but also for its departure from the more common mythological, allegorical and religious subjects. With the floral bouquet at the center situated upright, the view of Paris with Notre-Dame de Paris from the Pont de la Tournelle stands prominently at the base. The other two scenes depict the palace of Versailles, the principle residence of the French monarchs from Louis XIV to Louis XVI ; and a

Cat. 170

who perform acts of punishment. Nieuhof’s kneeling man is depicted with his head on fire ; the corresponding figure on the tray, however, is portrayed kneeling without the fire or smoke. The man lying prone on the ground with his head in a pillory replicates the figure almost exactly as it appears in Mendians.

Joseph Olérys ( 1697–1749 ), a French ceramist trained in Moustiers who was hired in 1726 to set up the workshop, is believed to have first introduced the Chinese series to the factory. Chinese-style ware became one of the most popular series to be produced at Alcora and remains one of the most sought-after

290

styles by collectors today. In 1737, after over a decade working at the factory, Olérys returned to Moustiers where he introduced the Chinese series that helped earn him fame as one of the most celebrated French ceramists of the 18th century. Miguel Soliva ( active 1732–1751 ), who replaced Olérys as artistic director of the factory, is believed to have further developed the C ­ hinese decoration at Alcora by introducing additional colors and originality to the overall design.

A tray in the collection of the Museu de Ceràmica in Barcelona ( now in the Museu del Disseny, ­Barcelona ) follows the same form, but the decoration shows a later development of the Chinese style. MCM

T H E E N L I G H T E N M E N T I N S PA I N

291

T H E E N L I G H T E N M E N T I N S PA I N