Asia and Spanish America

Papers from the 2006 Mayer Center Symposium at the Denver Art Museum

The Denver Art Museum held a symposium in 2006 to examine a little-known aspect of globalization in the early modern era. Specialists in the arts and history of Asia and Latin America came from Europe, Asia, and the Americas to present recent research on connections between the two areas. Edited by Denver Art Museum curators Donna Pierce and Ronald Otsuka, this volume presents revised and expanded versions of the papers presented at the symposium.

Gustavo Curiel opens the volume with a discussion of the reception and re-interpretation of Asian motifs in the various art forms of viceregal New Spain (Mex-ico). Essays by Etsuko Rodríguez and George Kuwayama present detailed analyses of Chinese porcelains excavated in Mexico and Peru that were imported via the Manila galleon trade. Roxanna Brown uses new evidence from shipwrecks in Southeast Asia to document the China-Manila branch of the trade network. Jorge Rivas looks at colonial furniture made in northern South America using Asian-inspired techniques and motifs. Sofía Sanabrais describes the adaptation of the Asian folding screen by Mexican artists. Meiko Nagashima addresses the exportation of Japanese lacquer traditions to Spanish America and Spain. Sonia Ocaña analyzes Japanese-inspired elements in shell-inlaid frames made in Mexico. Marjorie Trusted investigates the relationship to Asian models of Baroque ivory sculptures produced in the Americas; Abby Sue Fisher investigates the impact of Asian trade textiles on clothing in viceregal Mexico; and Clara Bargellini documents Asian trade goods at the missions of northern Mexico.

An interdisciplinary study bringing together scholars from two fields of art and addressing a variety of artistic media, this beautifully illustrated volume will be an important resource for scholars and enthusiasts of Asian and Latin American art and history.