All the layers of the pearly conquest of the Creoles at the Museum of America

For the first time, the three series of enconchados on the conquest of Mexico preserved in Spain are brought together and, although we have seen pieces of this type before in the Museo de América itself, where Two of the series are shown, but only one completeand at exhibitions such as namban lacquers (Museum of Decorative Arts, 2013) or return (Museo del Prado, 2021), the current exhibition gives us the opportunity to learn everything about this fascinating area of Neo-Spanish cultural production which, like the mother-of-pearl used in it, has countless layers.

The arrival of enconchados in Spain was the result of two major transcontinental trade routes: those carried out by the Manila Galleon (between that city and Acapulco) and the Fleet of the Indies (between Veracruz and Seville). They connected in Mexico City, the most cosmopolitan population of the moment, which shipped luxury objects from China and Japan to Europe.

Japanese lacquer suggested a pictorial innovation to Mexican artists that they applied mainly to religious images – we see some examples in the exhibition, together with oriental-style objects – but also to some relevant series with historical themes. The incorporation of mother-of-pearl pieces in compositions to enhance the clothing and ornamental details, he emphasized the brilliance of the divine in some cases and added, in others, symbolic values to the performance. And by transforming the paintings into luxury objects attractive to the elites, he favored the circulation of his political message.

The current exhibition gives us the opportunity to learn everything about this fascinating area of New Spain's cultural production

It is impressive that the conquest of Mexico has never been narrated in Spanish painting. It was in New Spain that this iconography developed.first in the eight canvases from the Kislak collection (Washington), dating from around 1660, then in canvases like the one we recently saw in the Prado – only seven are preserved – and finally in the shells, in the transition from the 17th to the 18th century, of which they arrived up to us five series on the topic, all perhaps from the same specialized workshop, that of the González family.

These works are product of “criolismo”, an ideology of the elites of New Spain to claim autonomy based on the understanding of the conquest as a voluntary transfer of sovereignty to Carlos V by Moctezuma and Cortés as an instrument of Christian providentialism. In them, the Mexicas appear in an equal relationship with the Spanish in that founding war and their ancient greatness is vindicated according to the writings of Carlos de Siguenza y Gongorawhich the exhibition's curator, Ana Zabía, proposes as the main inspiration for this innovative iconography, which sometimes changes the order of events and omits something infamous like the Tóxcatl massacre.

Each series includes around fifty episodes numbered and described in cards, with hundreds of characters in each table. And they vary a lot from each other, which shows – despite the González family having European engravings on display – a great visual imagination. The representation is almost two centuries after the facts and it shows us not Aztec Mexico, but a fanciful mixture of modern and ancient details. The archaic juxtaposition of different moments in the same spatial framework contrasts with the great modern freedom in the movement of bodies and in writing, in ink and with a Chinese feel.

This creativity is especially evident in the 24 panels of the “Royal Collection”, which could have been commissioned by the municipality of Mexico City to send to Carlos II and thus present the historical credentials of the Creoles. The message fell on deaf ears. Here only these shells were appreciated for their material splendor and their ornamental qualities.. They were arranged, considered as “jewels”, in the Alcázar, but they quickly went to the Galería de los Ídolos in La Granja and then to the Natural History Office, as “curiosities”. From there to the Archaeological Museum, the Prado and, now in storage, the Museu da América. The trip shows that we didn't know how to understand them. As paintings, they deserved no credit, and the lack of visual familiarity with their plot made them almost incomprehensible.

The Museum of America series is made up of just six tables, albeit larger ones. They were first exhibited in 1888.

The series that belongs to the Museum of America is made up of just six tables, although larger. Exhibited for the first time in 1888 and purchased by the State from a private individual in 1905. It is an example of the long stay of many of the the approximately 300 enconchados preserved in the domestic or ecclesiastical spherefor those that were mostly carried out, which delayed their study, which the catalog for this exhibition updates.

AND in private hands, by the Koplowitz sisters, follows the third series, also from 24, which occupies the center of the room –in an unfortunate setup, with blue walls and poor furniture– so that we can admire its unusual reverses, in which birds and notes of vegetation were painted on a golden background that echoes Japanese canvases from Kano school. This “Conquest” was ordered by José Sarmiento y Valladares, viceroy of New Spain and Count of Moctezuma by marriage, with his particular program. It highlights the dignity, lineage and work of mediation before the Spaniards of the Mexica emperor, whose political and material inheritance (in the form of mayorazgo) never stopped claiming.

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