Materials for a Baroque narrative in the Americas?

GABRIELA SIRACUSANO

Einsiedeln

Workshop; XV Baroque Summer Course of the Stiftung Bibliothek Werner Oechslin; 2014

University of Zurich/ UNIFESP (BRASIL)

Abstract: Materiality has been, through ages, an inevitable agent and ally in the construction of artistic narratives. In the 17th century Spanish artistic scene, treatises and manuals gave the key for the manipulation of the colors, varnishes, and media that would be necessary to provoque (and also controle) an intense and powerful emotion that the later 19th century would define as a Baroque one. The illusion and intention of moving and translating these aesthetic conditions to the Spanish territories in America (specially those concerning a religious dimension) would be as programatic as difficult in its concretion. In the Viceroyalty of Peru a new landscape and nature together with a cultural diversity expressed by new minds (heirs of ancient traditions) would definitely provoque changes and singular appropriations to these goals. By analyzing some case studies this proposal will intend to discuss these statemens.