Enconchados of Museo de América

The Inmaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary
Viceroyalty of New Spain
1600-1700
Royal Collections Gallery
00612503

From the second half of the sixteenth century onwards numerous ships plied the Pacific Ocean several times a year, travelling from the port of Manila to the viceroyalty of New Spain. This was one of the most important trade routes in history and brought about an artistic and cultural exchange between Asia and the Americas that significantly influenced aesthetic tastes. These galleons were laden with Eastern goods, among them the famous Namban-style Japanese lacquerware. This technique, in which pieces of inlaid shell from various molluscs were used, fascinated the artists of New Spain, who drew inspiration from it to create works with a style of their own, known as enconchados or shell-incrusted paintings.
This mixed media technique, developed chiefly in the workshops of Mexico City, consisted of covering a wooden panel with cloth and then applying a gesso ground onto which fragments of shells were inlaid and held in place with animal glue. Its distribution was designed to embellish and add luminosity to certain parts of the scene, especially the main figures. The iridescence of the material and its soft tones lent the picture a rich and original appearance.
This enconchado shows the Immaculate Conception represented according to traditional iconography: a praying woman with a youthful appearance standing on a crescent moon; above her head is the dove of the Holy Spirit and around her are various symbols from the Litany of Loreto, such as the Gate of Heaven, the Mirror of Justice and the Morning Star.
It was produced in the seventeenth century during the height of development of this art. The craftsmanship combines mother-of-pearl pieces, emphasising Mary's clothing, and paint, which is notable for the careful application of glazes.
In works of this kind the frame was an essential element and received special treatment, being made from the same materials; in this case, its surface is completely covered with pieces of mother-of-pearl carved in the shape of flowers, leaves and butterflies.
It probably found its way into Europe via another of the major trade routes: the one used by the Spanish West Indies fleet across the Atlantic from Veracruz or Cartagena to the ports of Seville or Cádiz. Works of this kind were destined for noble residences and religious foundations, but they were also used as diplomatic gifts, such as the twenty-four enconchados sent by the viceroy of Mexico, the Count of Moctezuma, to Charles II in 1698, now housed in the Museo de América and the Museo del Prado.
These anonymous pieces can be attributed to the main Mexican workshops such as those of the Gonzálezs, Juan Correa, Nicolás del Pino or Pedro López Calderón.

Saint Joseph and the Child
Viceroyalty of New Spain
1600-1700
Royal Collections Gallery
00612502

From the second half of the sixteenth century onwards numerous ships plied the Pacific Ocean several times a year, travelling from the port of Manila to the viceroyalty of New Spain. This was one of the most important trade routes in history and brought about an artistic and cultural exchange between Asia and the Americas that significantly influenced aesthetic tastes. These galleons were laden with Eastern goods, among them the famous Namban-style Japanese lacquerware. This technique, in which pieces of inlaid shell from various molluscs were used, fascinated the artists of New Spain, who drew inspiration from it to create works with a style of their own, known as enconchados or shell-incrusted paintings.
This mixed media technique, developed chiefly in the workshops of Mexico City, consisted of covering a wooden panel with cloth and then applying a gesso ground onto which fragments of shells were inlaid and held in place with animal glue. Its distribution was designed to embellish and add luminosity to certain parts of the scene, especially the main figures. The iridescence of the material and its soft tones lent the picture a rich and original appearance.
This enconchado shows Saint Joseph holding the Christ Child in a nature setting beside a river on whose opposite bank rises a city with sumptuous buildings. In the upper corner God the Father is blessing the saint. The use of mother-of-pearl pieces is concentrated in the figure of Saint Joseph, but also in part of the buildings, in the image of God the Father, and even in the tree trunk on the right of the scene.
In works of this kind the frame was an essential element and received special treatment, being made from the same materials; in this case, its surface is completely covered with pieces of mother-of-pearl carved in the shape of flowers, leaves and butterflies.
It probably found its way into Europe via another of the major trade routes: the one used by the Spanish West Indies fleet across the Atlantic from Veracruz or Cartagena to the ports of Seville or Cádiz. Works of this kind were destined for noble residences and religious foundations, but they were also used as diplomatic gifts, such as the twenty-four enconchados sent by the viceroy of Mexico, the Count of Moctezuma, to Charles II in 1698, now housed in the Museo de América and the Museo del Prado.
These anonymous pieces can be attributed to the main Mexican workshops such as those of the Gonzálezs, Juan Correa, Nicolás del Pino or Pedro López Calderón.

Chest
Michoacán
Circa 1600
Royal Collections Gallery
00612072

Numerous workshops in the Mexican state of Michoacán were devoted to manufacturing furniture and household objects characterised by extensive decoration completely covering their surfaces with a large number of motifs in bright colours. These indigenous workshops used a pre-Hispanic technique, employed since early times in household furnishings. It continued to be practised by local craftspeople during the Viceroyalty, though in pieces mainly intended for export. This technique sought to imitate the texture and sheen of oriental lacquers, which is why it became known as maque, a term derived from the Japanese ‘makie’. The paints were made from a mixture of animal fat extracted from the female Llaveia axin insect, vegetable oil and various pigments, primarily red, yellow, orange, blue, green and white, which were applied over a characteristic red ground.

Among these workshops were those of the town of Peribán, from which this chest probably comes. Although it currently contains relics, it was originally intended as a small table or portable writing cabinet, as indicated by its drop front, inner drawers and storage space covered by a domed lid, designed to hold documents. One of the characteristics of the decoration of these pieces was a ‘horror vacui’, and both the interior and exterior of this chest are profusely adorned with scenes and borders with recognisable buildings, plants and various animals and people, rendered in a very naive style and inspired by Flemish engravings.  It is therefore based aesthetically on European art.

In the seventeenth century a significant number of these pieces of furniture found their way into the Iberian Peninsula on galleons that set sail from Mexican ports laden with exotic objects. Their singularity made them highly prized luxury items that were appreciated by the upper classes, who displayed them in pride of place in their homes.

Virgin of Guadalupe
Juan Correa
1716
Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales
00610994

Devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe began in 1531, when the Virgin Mary appeared to an indigenous man named Juan Diego Cuauhtlaloac, whom she chose as the bearer of a message to the archbishop of Mexico, Fray Juan de Zumárraga, to build a church in her honour on the same site where the miraculous events had taken place, the hill of Tepeyac. The Mexican title of Virgin of Guadalupe dates from the Baroque period in New Spain and bears no relation to its Spanish namesake. This advocation became extremely popular throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, leading Mexican artists to produce many images of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which spread across the country, as well as throughout Spain and the Americas.
Like all sacred icons, the artistic representation faithfully reproduces the vera effigie of Guadalupe, which was imprinted on Juan Diego's cloak when the Virgin appeared to him for a fourth time. The sacred likeness is venerated as an authentic relic in the Basilica of Santa María de Guadalupe in Mexico City. The representation of the Virgin is generally in keeping with the established image of the Immaculate Conception, with a blue star-studded mantle and crown, enveloped in radiant light like the Woman of the Apocalypse and rising above the crescent moon, which is supported by an angel. But new features have also been added: she is portrayed with indigenous features and surrounded by flowers to recall the episode of the ‘miracle of the flowers’, when the roses that Juan Diego dropped at the archbishop’s feet were miraculously replaced by the image of the Virgin, which became imprinted on his cloak.
Of all palaces and royal monasteries and convents belonging to Patrimonio Nacional, the only building that houses pictorial images of the Mexican Virgin of Guadalupe is the convent of Las Descalzas Reales in Madrid, which has five examples of the two most common types. In this version the New Spanish painter Juan Correa (Mexico City 1646–1716) depicts Mary’s successive apparitions to Juan Diego in the four corners of the composition and a view of Tepeyac and its surroundings in the lower part. Correa made several replicas of the Virgin of Guadalupe for Spain; this one is noteworthy as it was signed the year he died, in 1716.

Text: Carmen García-Frías