Cristóbal de Villalpando’s Adoration of the Magi: A Discussion of Artist Technique

Mahon, Dorothy; Centeno, Silvia A.; Smieska, Louisa

doi:10.1525/lavc.2019.120007c

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 4 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…It is certainly difficult to extrapolate the findings presented here to Cristóbal de Villalpando's entire body of work, however, this analysis adds to the results reported by Arroyo , Mahon et al (2019), andLazarte Luna et al (2018) to start developing a more robust body of research around Villalpando's painting technique. Villalpando's mastery use of lakes to play with the transparencies of layers to depict garments comes across in El Triunfo de la Iglesia as well as in the Adoration of the Magi (Mahon et al 2019;Lazarte Luna et al 2018). This also includes the use of "semi-transparent yellow glazes" (Arroyo Lemus 2017; Mahon et al 2019, p. 118) to module tones.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…Villalpando worked on several monumental projects for the largest cities of the viceroyalty, like Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Puebla, and took part in the artistic elite of the moment alongside painters like Juan Correa (Hyman 2017). While Villalpando's artistic production has been largely explored in scholarly research, the studies from a material and technological perspective of his work are still scarce (Arroyo Lemus 2017; Lazarte Luna et al 2018;Mahon et al 2019). In this contribution, we analyze two paintings of medium format, El Triunfo de la Iglesia (The Triumph of the Church, See Figure 1) and La Asunción (The Assumption, See Figure 2), both dating between the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century and currently located at the Museo Regional de Guadalajara.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This does not mean smalt was not used before, as Espinosa Pesqueira and Lemus's (2014) in-depth study of smalt used by Simón Pereyns shows, but smalt was used as a base layer for azurite rather than as the main blue. Villalpando's painting technique has been studied by Mahon et al (2019), Lazarte Luna et al (2018), and. 6 The painter used smalt as the only blue pigment in the Adoration of the Magi, a painting studied by Mahon et al (2019) and Lazarte Luna et al (2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Villalpando's painting technique has been studied by Mahon et al (2019), Lazarte Luna et al (2018), and. 6 The painter used smalt as the only blue pigment in the Adoration of the Magi, a painting studied by Mahon et al (2019) and Lazarte Luna et al (2018). Arroyo Lemus (2017) also identified smalt in Villalpando's Moisés y la serpiente de bronce y la Transfiguración de Jesús.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

At the Core of the Workshop: Novel Aspects of the Use of Blue Smalt in Two Paintings by Cristóbal de Villalpando

Caballero¹,

Castaneda-Delgado

2021

Arts

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

During the seventeenth century, the use of smalt and indigo became increasingly common among painters’ workshops in New Spain. The unprecedented importance of these two blue pigments in oil painting may be explained by artistic and geopolitical circumstances. This article expands on the use of blue smalt—a byproduct of glass production and a material that lacks in-depth study in viceregal painting—by focusing on the technical analysis of El Triunfo de la Eucaristía and La Asunción painted by Cristóbal de Villalpando (ca. 1649–1714), which are part of the collection of the Museo Regional de Guadalajara (Mexico). The technological and material study of both paintings, situated within the trade and circulation of painting materials at the turn of the eighteenth century, shows how the painter deployed techniques rooted in his predecessors while incorporating particular technical adaptations. The authors examine cross-section samples of Villalpando’s paintings with optical microscopy, Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), and Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and were able to identify different qualities of smalt as well to suggest a possible provenance. These analyses evidence novel aspects in the painting tradition of workshops in New Spain that ultimately reverberated in practices of the long eighteenth century.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

At the Core of the Workshop: Novel Aspects of the Use of Blue Smalt in Two Paintings by Cristóbal de Villalpando

Caballero¹,

Castaneda-Delgado

2021

Arts

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Despite an undeniably growing interest and fascination with South American art, recently resulting in an increasing number of technical studies on this topic [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28], scientific investigations of barniz de Pasto are still limited, while more information can be found on related decorative techniques. An article published in 1992 by Portell [29] reports two Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of blue and green glazes from a polychrome wooden statue of the Immaculate Conception created in Quito using barniz chinesco, a technique in which gold and silver leaf were extensively applied together with transparent glaze layers to walls and ceilings of churches as well as free-standing figures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In search of Humboldt’s colors: materials and techniques of a 17th-century lacquered gourd from Colombia

Pozzi

Basso

Katz³

2020

Herit Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In 2014 the Hispanic Society Museum & Library, New York, acquired a viceregal Spanish American lacquered gourd, dating to 17th-century Colombia, which was decorated using an indigenous technique known as barniz de Pasto. This technique employs local, raw materials, including natural dyes and a plant resin commonly known as mopa mopa, harvested from Elaeagia pastoensis Mora trees that grow in the Andean rainforest. An in-depth scientific study of the gourd aimed at determining its materials and manufacturing techniques, and at comparing the results with the description of local botanical species reported by Alexander von Humboldt, the German naturalist and explorer, in the account of his travels through the region in 1801. The use of several non-invasive techniques was followed by micro-sampling. Initially, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis was performed to evaluate the possible presence of inorganic pigments, while fiber optics reflectance spectroscopy (FORS) and multiband imaging provided preliminary data concerning the colorants. Dyes and pigments were fully characterized using Raman spectroscopy and high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detector (HPLC-PDA); a detailed description of the resin was obtained with HPLC-PDA and pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS); the metallic elements and overall decoration were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDS). Radiocarbon dating completed the technical information on the object. This work confirmed the identity of the resin as Elaeagia pastoensis Mora, supporting an unequivocal classification of the gourd as a barniz de Pasto object; the color palette was found to include some of the pigments listed by Humboldt, but also comprised other materials, such as calomel, a rare white pigment based on mercury(I) chloride; examination of the decoration’s intricate stratigraphy provided insight into the complexity of the barniz de Pasto technique, in which silver leaf is typically applied on top of a sheet of untinted resin and covered with a variable number of dyed resin layers; finally, a pre-1650 date was firmly established for the gourd, which is in line with stylistic observations that had tentatively placed this object in the early barniz de Pasto period. In addition to providing conservators with the proper tools to preserve similar lacquered objects, the wealth of knowledge gleaned from this study has revealed fascinating details about the technique employed, demonstrating the extraordinary skill and craftsmanship of the artisans involved in the lacquer arts.

show abstract

New material connections in a mother-of-pearl Enconchado from the Viceroyalty of New Spain

Dismukes,

Lazarte,

Centeno

2024

Herit Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Adoration of the Magi (ca. 1695–1700), an enconchado painting attributed to Miguel González, active in Mexico in the late seventeenth century, exemplifies the refinement of the arts produced in Spanish America as a response to the taste for Asian goods during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The painting and its original mother-of-pearl inlaid frame were examined and analyzed using non-invasive and micro-sampling methods, an approach that permitted answering outstanding questions about the stratigraphy, pigments, and the use of shells throughout the painting and frame. The identification of the mother-of-pearl, determined to be from a Pinctada species, was a central focus of this study. In addition to the inlaid shells in the painting and frame, shell fragments were observed mixed with gypsum in the ground preparation of the painting by SEM–EDS. To our knowledge, this is a novel identification of marine shells in the ground of an easel painting. Traces of workmanship in the inlaid shells observed by SEM and optical microscopy are possibly connected to pre-Hispanic methodologies of mother-of-pearl refinement. Graphical Abstract

show abstract

Cristóbal de Villalpando’s Adoration of the Magi: A Discussion of Artist Technique

Cited by 3 publications

References 4 publications

At the Core of the Workshop: Novel Aspects of the Use of Blue Smalt in Two Paintings by Cristóbal de Villalpando

At the Core of the Workshop: Novel Aspects of the Use of Blue Smalt in Two Paintings by Cristóbal de Villalpando

In search of Humboldt’s colors: materials and techniques of a 17th-century lacquered gourd from Colombia

New material connections in a mother-of-pearl Enconchado from the Viceroyalty of New Spain

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About