More Reddish than Grain Cochineal in Colonial Andean Painting

GABRIELA SIRACUSANO; MARTA MAIER

A red like no other. How cochineal colored the world

Skira Rizzoli-MOIFA

Lugar: Nueva York; Año: 2015; p. 212 - 219

The presence of cochineal in Peru during pre-Columbian times has been widely studied. Different words are used to name it in early written Spanish Colonial sources: the anonymous Arte y vocabulario en la lengua general del Peru published in 1586 and 1603, as well as Diego González Holguín´s Vocabulario of 1608, refer to fine grain as macnu or magnu, while the chromatic term linked to it appears as puca. Ludovico Bertonio´s Vocabulario de la Lengua Aymara of 1612 calls it makhno, a kind of cake by which ?they dye wool red,? and offers different words for the colors obtained by its use. This reference to cochineal as an herbal cake specifically discusses the way it was processed for dying purposes. This context offers a reason why the word magno, mentioned several times in Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala´s Nueva Coronica (c. 1615), has been interpreted as ?dried herb? when it must be referring to cochineal. While denouncing the abuses of the parish priests in Peru, Guaman mentions that they asked for ?silver and more silver,? and that in each town they required as tribute ?twenty cakes of magno? a week, resulting in one hundred and twenty cakes of magno offered by three or four towns. The high price and quality of magno, discussed together with other dyeing colors mentioned by Guaman, show that he is talking about the importance of cochineal in Andean life since ancient times.NOTA: INGRESE ISBN FALSO PUES EL SISTEMA NO HABILITA QUE QUEDE VACIO, SIENDO QUE ES PUBLICACION EN PRENSA