To think about nothing. Material approaches to Spanish South American creativity.

GABRIELA SIRACUSANO

Boston

Simposio; symposium on Colonial art; 2019

Harvard University. Department of the History of Art and Architecture

For several years, together with the team we lead with Dr. Marta Maier, we have been developing various researches around the sacred image of Our Lady of Copacabana, Bolivia.Regarding the creative process that the FranciscoTito Yupanqui encouraged in 1583, I have on many occasions mentioned how he -a rough, clumsy but good Christian due to the written sources-, was seeking in Potosí for a license that would enable him to carve and paint the image without any restriction. The written sources show how he started wandering around, visiting many churches in order to find a good model, the best prototype to copy it. After many days he found the one that fitted his expectations at the Santo Domingo church in the sculpture of the Virgin of the Rosary, a 16th century Spanish image. It looks very interesting how Ramos Gavilán, the Augustinian chronicler, describes this moment "(...) he put his eyes on her with strange attention, wishing that an idea of the natural of that image could be imprinted in his mind, so that afterwards, and due to its prototype and look, he could give birth to his so beloved work." This quote is describing a very precise moment, that of the invenzione, of creativity by which this rude native artist would define the conceptual model of the image he wanted to create, by means of an operation that would involve mechanical but also intelectual skills.