Monjas Coronadas Portraits Within the Home Introduction Among the Great Mercies That Our Lord God Has

1 Displaying Legitimacy: Monjas Coronadas Portraits within the Home Introduction Among the great mercies that Our Lord God has shown me, and indeed one of the very greatest, is to have made me the granddaughter and daughter of very Christian parents. Although I was among the last of the daughters of the family, I do recall that all four of my grandparents were gachupines [who were of Spanish descent] from Spain, and that they took part in the conquest of these lands, the kingdom of the Indies. I never knew them. My father’s name was Luis de Palacios y Solozano, and my mother was Antonia Berruecos. Both were very rich in worldly goods, though as time passed their fortunes diminished, as is the way with all earthly things in life. My mother was born and raised in the city of Puebla de los Angeles, where her parents lived all their lives. And as her parents were very rich (for they had a great fortune, even more than my father, though he too was rich), a large portion fell to her.1 This statement by the New Spanish nun María de San José (1656-1791), from the collection of writings she made for her confessor between 1703-1704, highlights the anxiety that centered around performing and legitimizing one’s elite status in New Spain. In this quotation, María de San José describes in detail her Christian heritage, her lineage (which traced back to peninsular Spain), and her family’s wealth. Elite members of society, like María de San José, were constantly expected to present their illustrious lineage, and their wealth. Presenting their elite status influenced the arts made in New Spain. This focus on displaying secular lineage and status was especially seen in the portraits of nuns. A vast number of portraits depicted nuns in New Spain. These portraits often used European traditions to depict the sitter, and are thus not a uniquely New Spanish genre. But, there was one type of portrait that blended native, Creole (a person born in New Spain with a pure European Spanish lineage), 1 From the writings of Maríade San José: Selections from Vida, vol. 1, translated by Kathleen Ann Myers. Myers, Kathleen Ann. Neither Saints Nor Sinners, Oxford University Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, . 2 and European traditions, forming its own genre of portraiture that was uniquely New Spanish: the monja coronada (crowned nun) portrait. The monja coronada portrait was a genre of painting that focused on depicting elite young women as Brides of Christ. The portraits showed the women, crowned in flowers, immediately before their profession into New Spanish convents. Floral crowns were a part of the traditional costuming worn by young brides in New Spain. In the monjas coronadas portraits, the crowns referred to the nuns’ status as Brides of Christ. Monjas coronadas portraits show their subjects dressed in sacred habits and often carrying religious trappings, such as: painted escudos (symbolic shields resembling large pendants that displayed hand painted images of biblical scenes), small sculptures depicting Christ, candles, and figurines of the dove. Past scholarship, which began in the 1970s, focused on the portraits’ iconography, showing how artists incorporated specific indigenous Mexican symbols, such as indigenous birds and flowers, into European portrait conventions. Iconographical approaches have proven useful in discussing how the portraits legitimized the budding Creole culture in New Spain– but also have significant limitations.2 These approaches fail to relate the portraits to their more immediate social context, that of the New Spanish family. My paper will analyze two aspects of the monja coronada genre that have yet to be discussed in full: how the portraits were displayed by New Spanish families. By analyzing the portraits’ display, I will be able to show how the monja coronada portrait functioned within the realm of the family, and in New Spanish elite culture. I will focus on one monja coronada portrait: Jose de Alcíbar’s Profession Portrait of Sor María Ignacia de la Sangre de Cristo (figure 1; 1777). Profession portrait of Sor María Ignacia is a good representation of the types of portraits made by one of the most well-known monjas coronadas painter, Jose de Alcíbar. It is also an interesting example of the type of monja coronada created for a Creole nun within the order of the Poor Clares, one of the most influential orders in the Spanish empire, with direct ties to Habsburg royalty. By closely analyzing this specific portrait, my paper will be able to show how 2 The term Creole refers, in this context, to Mexican people of Spanish or European descent. 3 the monjas coronadas portraits fit within the familial and societal contexts of New Spain. Display and Display Culture In his 1979 essay on monjas coronadas portraits Rogelio Ruiz Gomar offered readers a glimpse into how the images were originally displayed. In his essay, he states that: “To be able to hang such a portrait on the walls of the family living room must have been in that Catholic society a source of pride and deep satisfaction. That the family paid for such portraits is substantiated by the fact that the old account books of the convents never mention payments to artists for such commissions.”3 But, Gomar’s assumption of a New Spanish “living room” is a misnomer; elite homes in New Spain would have had multiple reception rooms (known as salons). More recently, Kirsten Hammer has supported this sentiment, and has expanded slightly upon the discussion concerning where the monjas coronadas portraits were displayed. She adds that the portraits “demonstrate the attempt by colonial families to reaffirm their connection with the church and to advertise their own social and moral distinction.”4 As such, no scholar has yet to argue where exactly in the colonial home the portrait would have been displayed. In this section, I will address this gap in research.5 By situating the paintings more securely within the family house, we can better address the secular function the portraits had. Understanding how the portraits were situated within the home will allow a deeper discussion of how the portraits displayed elite status within New Spanish society. Based on inventory records of New Spanish homes, sale documents, and first-hand accounts from European travelers, Richard Aste briefly suggests that elite New Spanish patrons would have displayed 3 Rogelio Ruiz Gomar, “Portraits of Nuns” in “Monjas coronadas,” Artes de México 198 (1978):100. 4 Kirsten Hammer, “Monjas coronadas: The Crowned Nuns of Viceregal Mexico” in Retratos: 2,000 Years of Latin American Portraits, ed. Elizabeth P. Benson (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), 86. 5 In his recent writings on monjas coronadas, James Cordova address two areas in need of further scholarly research: the lineage inscriptions found within the images, and deducing where the portraits would be displayed within the family home. My paper aims to answer these questions, discussing the importance of the inscriptions, and offering a theory on where families would display monjas coronadas portraits. 4 family and royal portraits in the salón del dosel, the elite family's formal reception room.6 Aste states that: “In grand noble houses, reception rooms would include a lavishly decorated salón del dosel (baldachin room),” in which a “rich armchair on a raised platform would be placed under a baldachin as a tribute to the king of Spain. In that room family and royal portraits…as well as paintings with coats of arms, would be proudly displayed.”7 This argument merits closer consideration, especially in relation to the specific genre of the monjas coronadas portraits.8 It was in the salón del dosel that the head of the household would receive guests who had the potential to increase the family’s social standing, often through associating with elite members of New Spain. Because of these potential relationships, it was imperative that the family presented its elite status and legitimized its social reputation. The salón del dosel functioned as a visual display of elite status; the thematic programing of the room’s décor would allow families to highlight visual markers that signified that they were elite. Such visual markers included expensive textiles, paintings, and the baldachin. Historian Gustavo Curiel provides a case study of a colonial New Spanish home. He looked at sale records, journals, and inventories from the year 1695 for one Doña Teresa Francisca María de Guadalupe Retes Paz Vera, the marchioness of San Jorge, in Mexico City. 9 Curiel was able to show that Doña Teresa’s large collection of art and other material goods were displayed within specific rooms of her New Spanish estate. Doña Teresa had many reception rooms and salones in her estate, one of which was the ornate salón del dosel. The salón del dosel in Doña Teresa’s home featured a multitude of expensive artworks. The beams and lower portions of the walls were painted with religious scenes 6 formal reception room 7 Aste, Richard., Bagneris, Mia L, Brown, Michael A., Rivas, Jorge, Stratton-Pruitt, Suzanne L., Brooklyn Museum, Albuquerque Museum, and John Mable Ringling Museum of Art. Behind Closed Doors : Art in the Spanish American Home, 1492-1898 / Edited by Richard Aste ; Essays by Richard Aste, Mia L. Bagneris, Michael A. Brown, Jorge F. Rivas Pérez, Suzanne L. Stratton-Pruitt. 2013. 63 8 Aste instead tells the reader to refer to art historian Michael Brown's essay on New Spanish portraiture and patronage that is included later in the catalogue. Unfortunately, Brown's essay does not refer to the display of New Spanish portraiture within the home. 9 Wife of the marque 5 depicting the life of Christ.10 Doña Teresa also had expensive textiles hanging in the salón del dosel, one of which was specifically placed over the baldachin.

Load more