Research

Jump to: Review

20 pages, 87222 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Recently Identified Barniz Brillante Casket at Bateman’s, the Home of Rudyard Kipling

by Ludovico Geminiani, Maria Sanchez Carvajal, Emma Schmuecker, Megan Wheeler, Lucia Burgio, Dana Melchar and Valentina Risdonne

Heritage 2024, 7(3), 1569-1588; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage7030075 - 13 Mar 2024

Viewed by 925

Abstract

A casket held at Bateman’s, Rudyard and Caroline Kipling’s home in Sussex—now a National Trust property—was recently recognised as a barniz brillante work. Objects made of barniz brillante, a technique featuring the Indigenous American material called mopa mopa, are relatively rare [...] Read more.

A casket held at Bateman’s, Rudyard and Caroline Kipling’s home in Sussex—now a National Trust property—was recently recognised as a barniz brillante work. Objects made of barniz brillante, a technique featuring the Indigenous American material called mopa mopa, are relatively rare and have only sparingly been studied using scientific analysis techniques. A collaboration between the National Trust and the Victoria and Albert Museum has produced scientific evidence which will be invaluable in the study and the understanding of this type of object. The scientific analysis of the casket was conducted exclusively in a non-destructive and non-invasive manner, to preserve the integrity of the object which is in very good condition. The Bateman’s casket is characterised by a dark underdrawing, made with a material which is transparent in the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Most of the areas decorated with silver leaf have tarnished due to the formation of what is likely to be silver chloride. This study represents a significant step towards the comparative scientific study of barniz brillante objects in other collections, which in turn will make it possible to suggest a timeline for their manufacture, and even identify workshops. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lacquer in the Americas)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

24 pages, 36185 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Influence of Japanese Namban Lacquer in New Spain, Focusing on Enconchado Furniture

by Yayoi Kawamura and Ana García Barrios

Heritage 2024, 7(3), 1472-1495; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage7030071 - 11 Mar 2024

Viewed by 831

Abstract

This work studies one type of artistic production from the Viceroyalty of New Spain during the second half of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the following century. Furniture decorated with the technique of enconchado is studied to point out the influence [...] Read more.

This work studies one type of artistic production from the Viceroyalty of New Spain during the second half of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the following century. Furniture decorated with the technique of enconchado is studied to point out the influence of Namban lacquer as well as the relationship with enconchado painting, a better known and studied corpus than furniture, and also its link to Mexican lacquer, maque. The identification and study of three pieces of furniture that feature the enconchado technique, and a cross, probably decorated with maque, offer a complementary vision of the art of enconchado and allow us to consider enconchado furniture an independent artistic genre. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lacquer in the Americas)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 5746 KiB

Open AccessArticle

New Contributions Regarding the Barniz de Pasto Collection at the Museo de América, Madrid

by Ana Zabía de la Mata

Heritage 2024, 7(2), 667-682; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage7020033 - 02 Feb 2024

Viewed by 1014

Abstract

This article describes the objects in the barniz de Pasto collection at the Museo de América, Madrid. The barniz de Pasto technique will be described, as well as the historical documentary sources that have previously discussed this varnish. The article will also mention [...] Read more.

This article describes the objects in the barniz de Pasto collection at the Museo de América, Madrid. The barniz de Pasto technique will be described, as well as the historical documentary sources that have previously discussed this varnish. The article will also mention the historical reasons why Spain is the European country in which the greatest number of objects decorated with varnish have been found, in both religious and private collections. The main body of the article discusses all the barniz de Pasto objects held in the Museum collection, focuses on the history of their arrival at the Museum, and investigates their possible origin, with the help of ample photographs. The final section examines the Museum’s three most recent acquisitions, completed in the second half of 2022, in detail. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lacquer in the Americas)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 8730 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Splendour of Glitter: Silver Leaf in barniz de Pasto Objects

by María Cecilia Álvarez-White, David Cohen and Mario Omar Fernández

Heritage 2023, 6(10), 6581-6595; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage6100344 - 27 Sep 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1131

Abstract

This paper presents current findings about the historical use of silver and metallic elements as part of the decorative technique from Colombia known as barniz de Pasto. The results are part of broader ongoing research. The aim is to interpret and assess [...] Read more.

This paper presents current findings about the historical use of silver and metallic elements as part of the decorative technique from Colombia known as barniz de Pasto. The results are part of broader ongoing research. The aim is to interpret and assess the introduction of metal as a significant component in the consolidation of the technique. Our research uses well-established imaging techniques (visible light macrophotography; infrared and ultraviolet photography), cross-sections, and elemental mapping from SEM-EDS. The results are compared and interpreted within a holistic framework suggesting the introduction of silver as part of an innovation of the barniz de Pasto technique, either as whole silver leaf sandwiched between layers of mopa-mopa or as “venturine”, obtained by kneading, and therefore fragmenting, silver leaf within mopa-mopa layers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lacquer in the Americas)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 6253 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reflections on the Forms and Arrangements of Surface Images in the Art of Barniz de Pasto, from the 16th to the 19th Century

by María del Pilar López Pérez

Heritage 2023, 6(7), 5424-5441; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage6070286 - 17 Jul 2023

Viewed by 804

Abstract

Flowers, branches, birds, animals, a diversity of geometric combinations and varied scenes create, with great care, an exquisite and delightfully ornamented world. Among symmetries, proportions, chromatic sense, and repeated figures, themes between the sacred and the profane are set and arranged in the [...] Read more.

Flowers, branches, birds, animals, a diversity of geometric combinations and varied scenes create, with great care, an exquisite and delightfully ornamented world. Among symmetries, proportions, chromatic sense, and repeated figures, themes between the sacred and the profane are set and arranged in the artistic surfaces of barniz de Pasto. My reflection is aimed at knowing in greater depth the marvelous creations that the barniz de Pasto painters elaborated in the cultural environment of San Juan de Pasto and San Francisco de Quito, by exploring that visual world, which is part of a group of objects made by overlapping layers of membrane to define figures with the presence of silver leaf, in which a significant relief is generally evident. Understanding how the figures were arranged on the surface of the objects, how they were organized, and what system of composition and other possible artistic resources to control the surfaces existed, leads me to consider that the craftsmen had a similar training to that given in the field of the Spanish painter in several of its modalities. Some of the most noted examples of this neogranadino art will be used as examples. I reflect on three examples from different periods and very different in their configuration: a casket, a cabinet, and a tray, all decorated with barniz de Pasto and with different compositional challenges for the artist. Rather than the physical–mechanical use of materials and supports, I focus on the syntax of the image and the techniques used in the organizational structure and its processes, finding that there were ways of organizing the elements in a specific space and that these came from professional practices associated mainly with painting. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lacquer in the Americas)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 11550 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Lacquer and Imitation Lacquer Folding Screens in New Spain

by Sonia I. Ocaña-Ruiz

Heritage 2023, 6(5), 4282-4299; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage6050226 - 11 May 2023

Viewed by 3689

Abstract

Folding screens were very popular in New Spain beginning in the late 16th century. From the second half of the 17th century on, many Chinese and some European lacquer folding screens circulated in New Spain, inspiring the development of Novohispanic lacquer, imitation lacquer, [...] Read more.

Folding screens were very popular in New Spain beginning in the late 16th century. From the second half of the 17th century on, many Chinese and some European lacquer folding screens circulated in New Spain, inspiring the development of Novohispanic lacquer, imitation lacquer, and Chinese-style folding screens. The decorative technique of these Novohispanic folding screens has not been studied, but evidence suggests that some of them were made with techniques that have pre-Columbian roots, others with European lacquer techniques, and others still with paint and varnish adapted to produce a shiny surface resembling that of Asian lacquer. Thus, 18th-century New Spain was the place where there was the widest variety of lacquer folding screens in the world. Hitherto this variety has remained unnoticed, but studying it is essential to understand to what extent the globalization of the taste for lacquer gave rise to innovative solutions in the Americas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lacquer in the Americas)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 6621 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Three Studies of Luxury Mexican Lacquer Objects from the 16th to the 19th Centuries, Analysis of Materials and Pictorial Techniques

by Rafael Romero, Adelina Illán and Clara Bondía

Heritage 2023, 6(4), 3590-3605; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage6040191 - 11 Apr 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1357

Abstract

This technical study of three Mexican lacquer objects, dating from the 16th, 18th and 19th centuries, analyses different lacquer manufacturing processes and their local characteristics through the centuries. The technical analysis of each object highlights their material and technological innovation. In addition, we [...] Read more.

This technical study of three Mexican lacquer objects, dating from the 16th, 18th and 19th centuries, analyses different lacquer manufacturing processes and their local characteristics through the centuries. The technical analysis of each object highlights their material and technological innovation. In addition, we describe individual stylistic characteristics of Mexican lacquer production centres, Peribán and Olinalá. Finally, we conclude with a few observations about the taste for Asian lacquer in the West, and how this impacted lacquer crafts around the world. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lacquer in the Americas)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 5289 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Art of Barniz de Pasto and Its Appropriation of Other Cultures

by Yayoi Kawamura

Heritage 2023, 6(3), 3292-3306; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage6030174 - 22 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1894

Abstract

This study analyzes the techniques and decorative motifs of several works made using barniz de Pasto, highlighting their characteristics in order to establish comparisons with artistic phenomena of Asia and Europe. A possible link can be observed between barniz de Pasto and [...] Read more.

This study analyzes the techniques and decorative motifs of several works made using barniz de Pasto, highlighting their characteristics in order to establish comparisons with artistic phenomena of Asia and Europe. A possible link can be observed between barniz de Pasto and the Namban and Pictorial style Japanese export lacquer works of the 17th and 18th centuries. A search for similarity is justified by the documentary and material evidence of Japanese works created in these styles being transported from Japan to the Viceroyalty of New Spain by Manila galleons via the trade route between Acapulco and Callao. Additionally, traces of the Spanish culture have been recognized in barniz de Pasto. For example, printed images that circulated in the Viceroyalty of Peru have been observed on a coffer. This appropriation, also observed in the mural painting of a Central Andean church, and the presence of the image of Amaru, a Quechua deity, on the same coffer, marks the Central Andes as one of the possible places where the practice of barniz de Pasto could have been established. All of this points to Central and South America’s great ability to appropriate foreign cultures and fuse them with their own during the viceregal period, as manifested in the art of barniz de Pasto. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lacquer in the Americas)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

25 pages, 9038 KiB

Open AccessReview

The Story of Elaeagia Resin (Mopa-Mopa), So Far

by Richard Newman, Emily Kaplan and Maria Cecilia Álvarez-White

Heritage 2023, 6(5), 4320-4344; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage6050229 - 12 May 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2648

Abstract

The unusual resin from some species of Elaeagia, a genus now found in certain parts of Central America and South America, was probably first utilized by native peoples in Colombia more than a thousand years ago. It became a crucial part of often [...] Read more.

The unusual resin from some species of Elaeagia, a genus now found in certain parts of Central America and South America, was probably first utilized by native peoples in Colombia more than a thousand years ago. It became a crucial part of often elaborately decorated objects made in the southwestern city of Pasto in the colonial period, and it has continued to be used there up to the present, in which it is at the core of a local craft tradition. The resin was also utilized for about 300 years by the Inka, mainly to decorate qeros (ceremonial drinking cups). The resin is often referred to as mopa-mopa and, specifically in Colombia, as barniz de Pasto. The botany, chemistry, properties, and analysis of Elaeagia resin are reviewed, along with a brief survey of the history of its use. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lacquer in the Americas)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Lacquer in the Americas

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Published Papers (9 papers)

Research

Review

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI