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The Splendor of Silver: Masterworks of a Spectacular Argentine Collection
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14481 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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3 / 1988 |
1,895 Words |
| Author
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John Stringer
John Stringer is senior curator of the Art Gallery of Western
Australia, Perth. |
Prodigious exploitation of Latin America's abundant precious minerals began five centuries ago with the Spanish Conquest. It not only changed the economic balance of the world, but also led to a brilliant artistic flowering. From the time of Cellini onward, European craftsmen relied in particular upon gold and silver from the New World. The splendid artifacts they produced during the Renaissance and into the nineteenth century are justifiably famous and universally treasured. What is relatively unknown by comparison, however, is the extraordinary explosion of fine metalworking that was flourishing simultaneously within the Americas.
Spanish colonists in the New World made use of architecture, painting, and the applied arts to express religious beliefs and social behavior in their new life. It is thus not surprising that American artifacts often conform closely to European prototypes. Nevertheless, certain factors account for significant differences from European tradition. To begin with, technology was less developed and sophisticated in the colonies, so most pieces are hammered, and they rarely carry makers' marks. Secondly, certain types of objects--such as mate (pronounced mä-tā) cups used for drinking herbal mate tea--simply do not exist in Europe. And finally, there are variations in decoration exclusive to Latin America.
Especially in the Andes, precious metals have a long association with religion and ritual. Awesome quantities of gold and silver lined the walls of the Temple of the Sun in Peru until the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro ransacked this spiritual capital of the Incas. After the raid, the Spanish military added the silver as extravagant ornamentation to its weaponry.
Wealth of Silver
Masses of silver plaques in different designs and dimensions covered church interiors in profusion. Ornaments were commonly produced in pairs to make symmetrical groups harmonious with ecclesiastical architecture, although close scrutiny reveals variations in detail that show objects are rarely identical. This fact indicates that pieces were seldom cast, but almost invariably crafted individually by hand. To raise such delicate objects out of a piece of silver is an extremely laborious process, proving that New World artisans more than compensated in skill for what they lacked in technology. The silver sheet must be constantly annealed (heated, then cooled in a solution of water and acid) to keep it malleable, and to avoid cracking. It is shaped by hammering, then refined with repoussé by beating from behind.
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