Folding Screens and Racist Paintings

The art of colonial Mexico was primarily religious art, however an exhibit currently on display at Iturbide's Palace deals with two forms of secular art from the 16th and 17th centuries... "biombos" and "casta" paintings.

"Biombos" were decorative, folding screens used in the homes of the wealthy.  Folding screens were brought to Mexico from Asia by the merchant fleets that sailed from the Philippines to the port of Acapulco, and the word "biombo" is of Japanese origen.  However, in the hands of Mexican craftsmen and painters, the "biombo" became an art form of the New World.  The panels were painted with local landscapes, historical events, and idealized scenes of life among the colonial upper class.

 This "biombo" has scenes (from left to right) of Iztacalco, a borough of Mexico City which was originally an island in Lake Texcoco; the Alameda, a park established in 1592; and the main plaza of Mexico City, now known as the Zócalo.

This screen depicts the conquest of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan by the Spanish under Hernán Cortés.

This detail from that screen fancifully shows the meeting between Cortés and the Aztec emperor Moctezuma.

A Mexican landscape

This screen is entitled "The Entrance of a Spanish King in Madrid".  It does not depict an actual King, but is meant as an allegory on the characteristics of a good ruler.

This screen is attributed to Miguel Cabrera, one of the most important painters of colonial Mexico.  It depicts an outdoor party.

Scenes on the terrace of a country home

The battles of Alejandro Farnesio, an Italian duke who was a general in the Spanish army

"Casta" (caste) paintings are a genre of painting that was popular in colonial Mexico.  They portray the different racial groups in colonial society and reflect the importance of "purity of blood" among Spaniards of that era.  By modern standards the bewildering array of racial classifications are bizarre and racist.

This chart lists fifteen different racial categories.

 

Spanish and Indian Produces Mestizo

From Spanish and Black, Mulata

Spanish and Mulata Produces Morisca

From Spanish and Mestiza Is Born Castizo

The classifications get even more confusing and the names more insulting and bizarre.  A black and an Indian produce a "lobo" (wolf), an Indian and a mestizo produce a "coyote".

An interesting but disturbing look back at another era.