- Hello, and welcome to "Insider Insights".
I'm Emma Wegner, Associate Educator in Public Programs
and Creative Practice at The Met.
In this series, we're providing closer looks at objects
from the collection and exhibitions with Met experts.
We hope you'll continue to join us,
as we debut each new video.
Today, we're joined by my colleague, Ronda Kasl.
Curator of Latin American Art in the American Wing,
who is going to tell us about an exciting new acquisition.
A Mexican lacquerware, Batea,
attributed to, José Manuel de la Cerda,
an artist employed by the Viceregal court in Mexico city.
Combining a Pre-Hispanic lacquer technique,
European subject matter from Virgil's Aeneid
and Asian inspired ornamentation.
This large and impressive work is uniquely expressive
of the global circulation of people
and things in the early modern period.
I'm going to hand things over to Ronda,
thank you so much for joining us today.
- Thank you very much, Emma.
The recent acquisition
of this extraordinary lacquerware tray, called a "Batea"
adds an important dimension to the Met's growing collection
of colonial Spanish American art.
This is a new collection area for the Museum.
And the addition of this work,
not only broadens its representation
in terms of key artistic media.
It also invites us to explore larger issues and to reflect
on the transcultural creation and circulation
of works of art in the early modern Spanish world.
This large Batea is attributed to José Manuel de la Cerda,
an Indigenous artist, active in the city
of Pátzcuaro in West-Central Mexico,
during the mid 18th century.
His work was highly regarded in his own time,
and he enjoyed the patronage
of the Viceregal court in Mexico city.
In the mid 1760s, the Spanish diarist,
Francisco de Ajofrín
saw his work and praised it.
Writing, "Today, there flourishes a celebrated painter,
an Indian nobleman named, Don José Manuel de la Cerda,
who has greatly perfected the art
of lacquer so that it exceeds those
of China in delicacy and luster."
At the time, there could be no greater praise.
It was also the author's way of saying that this type
of object, was a notable product of New Spain,
present day Mexico
Made by an Indigenous craftsman, and it was just as rare
and beautiful as prized exports from Asia.
Ajofrín
goes on to say that he's seen a dozen large Batea,
as the artist was painting for the Vice-reign of New Spain.
Proclaiming that they were worthy
of a person of such elevated character.
This Batea may have been one of them.
The highly inventive decoration of this large circular tray,
exemplifies the ways in which local artistic traditions
in New Spain were profoundly transformed by the presence
of imported art objects from Asia.
Lacquerware and other luxury goods from Japan
and China, were brought to Mexico via the Philippines
on the so-called Manila galleons beginning in the 1570s.
Annually, for nearly 250 years
the galleon departed Acapulco loaded with tons
of Spanish-American silver, and returned from Manila
with cargos of silk, porcelain and other Asian goods.
The Spanish colony in Asia was governed by the Viceroy
in Mexico city.
As I'm sure you've noticed by now
this is a work of enormous material and cultural complexity.
The artist has used a pre-Hispanic lacquer
technique to achieve a lustrous black ground,
upon which figural and decorative motifs are painted
with pigments and powdered gold and a technique that is akin
to Japanning, a European imitation of Asian lacquer work.
The lacquer itself was made using materials native
to Mexico, namely; aje and chia oils combined with mineral
clays and pigments for color.
At the same time, the Batavia features rarely
depicted episodes from a Latin Epic Virgil's Aeneid.
In combination with ornamentation inspired by
both Asian lacquerware and European
Chinoiserie.
At the center of this large Batea, which was made
from a single piece of wood,
measuring 42 inches in diameter,
two related scenes from book nine
of the Aeneid are featured, and inscribed with the title,
"Turnus provoked into war by Aeneas"
Turnus is shown astride a charging white horse
outside the walls of a fortress, whose Trojan defenders
refused to engage in battle.
You can see their flag and Lancers
protruding from above the battlements.
In response, the enraged Turnus will set fire
to the Trojan ships.
Two of which can be seen in the waters behind him.
If you look very closely,
you'll see the Turnus is brandishing
a little flaming torch.
This act of rage, will ensure Aeneas' Roman destiny.
His ship's destroyed, his years of wandering come to an end.
Creole humanists in New Spain,
compared this episode from the
Aeneid,
to the alleged burning of ships by Hernán Cortés,
to prevent the retreat of his army
at the beginning of the conquest of Mexico.
In a letter to the King of Spain, Cortés himself,
famously referred to the destruction of his fleet,
as "un hecho Troyano"
The secondary scene beneath it, shows
an even more rarely depicted subject.
The nighttime foray of the Trojan companions Nisus and Euryalus
against Turnus' encampment.
The bloody ambush would end in tragedy.
Here, I want to call attention to the artist's sophisticated
use of the black lacquer ground
for the two nocturnal scenes in the central medallion.
This medallion is encircled by a wide band
of decoration, with vignettes of cavalry skirmishes framed
by willows and camellia trees.
While the historical figures in the central scene,
wear suits of armor, those who populate the surrounding band
of ornamentation are clothed in 18th century dress.
Neither the subject matter nor the location
of these skirmishes is identifiable.
But the vegetation as well as the style of the buildings
allude to Asia.
With respect to the influence of the Asian art,
the Batavia is akin to other works in the collection,
including this blue and white glazed storage jar,
made in the Mexican city of Pueblo,
at the beginning of the 18th century.
The first pottery workshops were established
in Pueblo, by immigrant craftsman from Spain,
who introduced the technology required to
produce wheel throne, tin-glazed earthenware
in the middle of the 16th century.
By the mid 17th century,
they had organized Professional Guild
and drafted ordinances that established among other things,
the grades of pottery made by its members.
In 1682, those ordinances were amended to stipulate
that the painting of fine ware must imitate
that of China, and be painted in very bright blue.
This particular jar was probably used
to store a cacao beans, and once had a lockable iron lid.
Only the iron color is preserved.
The jar surface is decorated with highly stylized birds
which may derive from the Chinese motif of a Phoenix,
transformed here into a capsule.
An extravagantly plumed bird considered sacred
by many Mesoamerican peoples.
This design may represent a misinterpretation
of the Chinese motif,
or perhaps the intentional accommodation
of a local aesthetic and meaning.
Recall that the consumption of chocolate was accustomed,
pre-Hispanic origin.
For Creole elites in Mexico, the ownership
and display of luxury goods from Asia were locally
produced imitations, signaled not just social status,
it formed part of an ongoing discourse
of self identification
which distinguished the Spanish vice royalty
and those born there, from their Iberian counterparts.
It was the visible manifestation of a growing sense
of global awareness, in which Mexico city was seen
as a prosperous Emporium, re-transpacific, as well
as transatlantic routes of passage and exchange converged.
Thank you very much for joining me today
and I'll see you in the galleries.