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(b Texcoco; fl 1751–1803).

Mexican painter. José de Alcíbar was a prominent figure in Mexico City’s cultural scene during the second half of the 18th century, where he appears to have primarily painted portraits and religious images. One of Alcíbar’s best-known works, De Español y Negra, Mulato (1760; Denver, CO, A. Mus.), was painted as part of a casta series; a type of work that depicts the different racial groups (Spaniards, Africans, and native Mexicans) present in Mexico (see Pinturas de castas). Alcíbar is also recognized as a member of a group of artists who in 1751 aided painter Miguel Cabrera in his analysis of the miraculous image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. His formal approach remained Baroque in nature while his figures and colours epitomized the sweet and soft style Cabrera introduced in the mid-18th century. Alcíbar’s Ministry of St Joseph (c. 1771; Mexico City, Mus. N.A.) best represents this approach to Novohispanic subject-matter. Alcíbar’s style is a prime example of the ‘Old School of Mexican Painting’ typical of the late 18th century that decreased in prominence due to the establishment of the Academia and its emphasis on Neo-classicism....

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(b Vacarisses, 1704; d Barcelona, Feb 14, 1782).

Spanish architect, engineer, and administrator, active in Peru. He was the second son of the Marquis de Castellbell and received military training at an early age. He served as Spanish governor in Chile (1755–61), acquiring a reputation there as a fortifications expert. In 1761 he was appointed Viceroy of Peru, where he launched a vast campaign of public works (see Peru, Republic of §III 1.). During his administrative term, which lasted until 1776, the city of Lima enjoyed a period of prosperity and splendour marked by the French Baroque taste favoured by the Spanish Court. The evidence strongly suggests that Amat was the designer of several monuments in Lima that were executed by the alarife (surveyor and inspector of works) Juan de la Roca, who may have also collaborated in the elaboration of some of the plans. Amat’s masterpiece was the church of Las Nazarenas (consecrated ...

(b Real de Pachuca, c. 1670; d Mexico City, 1738).

Mexican architect. He qualified as an architect in 1691. Between 1695 and 1709 he worked on the Basílica of Guadalupe, Mexico, which is mainly interesting for its broken lines and for the octagonal form used in the dome, in the section of the towers, and the lintels of the doors. His activities were concentrated mainly in Mexico City, where he worked as Maestro Mayor for the Inquisition and the cathedral. He was responsible for the churches of S Gregorio and S Bernardo, the church and convent of S Teresa la Nueva, the monastery of S José de los Carmelitas Descalzos, the church of El Amor de Dios, and the church, sacristy, and sacristy entrance hall of S Domingo, as well as the Palace of the Inquisition and Customs, all in Mexico City. He also collaborated on the churches of S Clara, Jesús Nazareno, S Francisco, S Miguel, and La Profesa, all in Mexico City, and worked on the Colegio Seminario of the cathedral. His non-ecclesiastical works include the S Juan del Río, Mariscala, and Alhóndiga bridges. He used a white stone from Chiluca and ...

(b Mariana, Minas Gerais, bapt Oct 18, 1762; d Mariana, Feb 2, 1830).

Brazilian painter. He was the most important painter active in the province of Minas Gerais during the Colonial period. He learnt his craft in the workshop with other artists and from such theoretical treatises as Andrea Pozzo’s Perspectivae pictorum atque architectorum (1693–1700) and such technical manuals as the Segredos necessarios para os officcios, artes e manufaturas (Lisbon, 1794), which was recorded in the inventory of his possessions. He was also strongly influenced by engravings of religious subjects in bibles and missals. He had a great influence on the development of religious painting in the region, especially through his numerous pupils and followers, who until the middle of the 19th century continued to make use of his compositional methods, particularly in the perspective ceilings of churches. Often referred to in documents as ‘professor de pintura’, in 1818 he unsuccessfully petitioned for official permission to found an art school in his native city. He left an extensive body of work, which includes decorative painting of architecture, single pictures, and the painting of religious statues (gilding and flesh-colouring). Especially famous are the vast perspective paintings such as the ...

(b Zamora, c. 1680; d Mexico City, 1748).

Spanish architect and sculptor, active in Mexico. Between 1702 and 1703 he worked in Madrid as a designer of stage machinery, later moving to Andalusia, where he produced the principal altar of the sacristy of Seville Cathedral in the Rococo style, completed in 1709 (destr. 1824). Ceán Bermúdez described it as having ‘four large estípites, pilasters, lots of angels prankishly tumbling about and a cornice broken and interrupted in a thousand places with tortuous projections and recessions, the whole topped by a huge arch’. In 1714 Balbás also carried out the plan for the choir-stalls of the church of S Juan in Marchena, carved by Juan de Valencia, equally playful in style and similarly using estípites. The same year he designed the lectern in the same church, though this was not constructed until 1735.

Around 1718 Balbás went to Mexico City to take charge of the ‘retablo del Perdón’ in the Chapel of the Kings at the Metropolitan Cathedral, using the ...

(b nr Rome, 1677; d Córdoba, Argentina, Dec 25, 1740).

Italian architect, active in Argentina. Having studied architecture in Rome, in 1716 he joined the Jesuit Order. In 1717 he travelled with Giovanni Battista Primoli to Buenos Aires, subsequently settling in Córdoba. He was an able designer with a considerable theoretical knowledge of architecture and often worked in collaboration with Primoli, who completed many of his designs. Bianchi’s purified, classical style contained some Mannerist tendencies, and its implementation helped to increase the level of craftsmanship in architecture in the region. In 1719 he set up the lime kilns at La Calera, near Córdoba, so enabling an improvement in the building techniques of the region. In 1720 he moved to Buenos Aires, where he directed work on the Jesuit Colegio and later completed the construction of their church. Other important projects in Buenos Aires were his designs for the churches of Nuestra Señora del Pilar (Recoletos), Belén, S Catalina, La Merced, and S Francisco as well as the façade of the cathedral (all ...

[bucaro; búcaro; buccaro]

Scented red earthenware brought originally by the Portuguese from Mexico; the word derives from Portuguese búcaro (clay cup). The term also denotes similar earthenware made in Portugal and Spain (especially Talavera) from the 16th to the 18th centuries, and the imitation made by Johann Friedrich Böttger at Meissen; the name is also applied to the red Chinese stoneware made in Yixing.

American porcelain manufacturer. Gousse Bonnin (b ?Antigua, c. 1741; d c. 1779) moved in 1768 from England to Philadelphia, where he established the first porcelain factory in America with money from an inheritance and with investments from George Morris (1742/5–73). The land was purchased late in 1769 and in January 1770 the first notice regarding the enterprise was published. The first blue-decorated bone china wares were not produced until late in 1770. Newspaper advertisements noted ‘three kilns, two furnaces, two mills, two clay vaults, cisterns, engines and treading rooms’ and listed such wares as pickle stands, fruit baskets, sauce boats, pint bowls, plates, plain and handled cups, quilted cups, sugar dishes in two sizes, cream jugs, teapots in two sizes, and breakfast sets. Well-established foreign competition, however, was too formidable for the new business, which had to charge high prices to meet large expenses; production ceased by ...

(b Guatemala City, Sept 16, 1781; d Guatemala City, Nov 21, 1845).

Guatemalan painter, printmaker, and medallist. He entered the mint in 1795 as an apprentice engraver but on the recommendation of its director, Pedro Garci-Aguirre, also became Master Corrector at the Escuela de Dibujo de la Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País, Guatemala City, in 1796, holding the post until 1804. He continued working at the mint until 1809 and demonstrated outstanding skill both as a medallist and engraver of coins and as an engraver and etcher. He returned to the mint in 1823 as second engraver, remaining in the post until his death.

Despite the quality of his work as a printmaker and medallist, Cabrera gained artistic recognition especially as a miniature painter, working mostly in watercolour on ivory in a meticulous technique. He produced some miniatures on religious themes and others of birds, but the majority, measuring no more than 50 mm in height or width, were portraits of members of the Guatemalan aristocracy and bourgeoisie. It is not known exactly how many he produced, but from the middle of the 1830s he began to number them, starting from 500; the highest known number of the approximately 200 authenticated miniatures is 745. Although he suffered some illness, he was most productive during the last five years of his life. An evolution can be discerned from his earliest works, dating from ...

(b Antequera [now Oaxaca], Feb 27, 1695; d Mexico City, May 16, 1768).

Mexican painter, designer, and author. An orphan who identified as a Spaniard, he was the premier painter of 18th-century New Spain, producing devotional works, private portraits, a casta series, and a biombo (folding screen). He received his most important commissions after 1751, the year he examined the Virgin of Guadalupe icon. His publication Maravilla Americana (1756) is a blend of science, faith, and devotion confirming the image’s miraculous origin while maintaining that the divine object ennobled the art of painting. Based on his close examination of the icon, he produced three “true portraits” of the image, one of which was taken to Rome and examined by Pope Benedict XIV. The pope proclaimed Guadalupe patron of New Spain and declared, Non fecit taliter omni nationi (“He [God] has not done the like for any other nation”). Cabrera was a favorite painter of the Colegiata de Guadalupe and the Jesuits, yet worked for all of the mendicant orders and numerous members of the elite. Exceptional works beyond the viceregal capital abound, including his more than two dozen paintings for the church of S. Prisca in Taxco (...

(b San Juan, Dec 23, 1751; d San Juan, Nov 7, 1809).

Puerto Rican painter. Campeche y Jordán’s father was a freed black slave, while his mother was from the Canary Islands and was considered white. He may have received some artistic training from his father, who was a gilder, decorator, and painter. Campeche must have depended to some extent on engravings for iconographic configurations, anatomical realism, and composition; he may have possessed a copy of Antonio Palomino’s El museo pictórico y escala óptica (1715–24). He received commissions in Puerto Rico and further afield, such as from Venezuela and Cuba. His work oscillated stylistically between late Counter-Reformation devotion, Rococo courtliness, and a more sober Neo-classicism. Scholars have credited his evolving style to contact with the Spanish artist Luis Paret y Alcázar (1746–99), who had studied at the Real Academia di S Fernando in Madrid and lived in exile in San Juan from 1775 to 1778 where he met Campeche. In San Juan Campeche maintained an artistic workshop likely assisted by his brothers and nephew. He was prolific painter of religious scenes, portraits, and at least one history painting. His work advanced a Bourbon colonial visual culture, including his portrait of ...

[Chili, Manuel ]

(fl Quito, 18th century).

Ecuadorean sculptor. An Indian nicknamed Caspicara (wooden face), he lived in Quito, and his name and work were discovered in 1791 by the doctor and journalist Eugenio Espejo. He was a pupil of Bernardo de Legarda. He is considered the outstanding sculptor of religious images in polychromed wood of the colonial period in Quito because of the delicacy, grace, and feeling that he gave to human expressions and his attention to the details of anatomy and the movement of his figures. The elegant but natural carving of the drapery adds a Baroque quality to his sculptures. The most outstanding of his works in Quito, all of unknown date, include the Four Virtues and the Holy Shroud in Quito Cathedral; St Francis, the Twelve Apostles, and the Assumption of the Virgin in S Francisco; and La Virgen del Carmen, St Joseph, and the Coronation of the Virgin in the Museo Franciscano in Quito. In certain of his works he grouped the figures as if in a painting, as in the ...

(b Lima, 1785; d Lima, 1841).

Peruvian painter, also active in Chile. He was self-taught. He spent many of his early years in Chile (see also Chile, Republic of, §III, 2), during which he worked in the army as, among other things, a topographer. He also painted a number of religious works during this period, including Our Lady of Mercy (1815; Lima, Irene Eyzaguirre Col.) and portraits of prominent society figures (e.g. Isabel Rodríguez Riquelme, 1819; Santiago, Mus. Hist. N.). In 1822 he returned to Peru, where he designed the army uniform and painted portraits of leaders of the Independence movement, including the Martyr Olaya (1823; Lima, Mus. N. Hist.) and various paintings of Simón Bolívar (e.g. 1822; Lima, Mus. A.). While vestiges of colonial art can be seen in de Castro’s work, his subject-matter and his skilled treatment of perspective, colour, and composition singled him out as the most important painter of the early Republican era, and his work constitutes an invaluable historical record....

(b Teziutlán, Puebla, June 10, 1822; d Mexico City, May 28, 1884).

Mexican painter. He studied painting at the Academia de San Carlos, Mexico City, and in 1844 went to the Accademia di S Luca, Rome, where he was taught by the Sicilian Neo-classical painter Natal di Carta. His earliest works were portraits, for example that of the Mexican sculptors Pérez and Valera (1847; Mexico City, Mus. N. A.). He exhibited Columbus before the Catholic Kings (1850; Mexico City, Mus. N. A.) in his studio in Florence, to critical acclaim, and the painting made a great impression in Mexico when he returned there in 1853, also taking with him his most ambitious, and highly academic, easel painting, Christ the Redeemer and the Woman Taken in Adultery (1853; Guadalupe, Mus. Reg.). In his Romantic portrait of Doña Dolores Tosta de Santa Anna (1855; Mexico City, Mus. S. Carlos), wife of the president of the Mexican Republic, Cordero modelled the sitter in a sculptural fashion; the work is remarkable in 19th-century Mexican art in its departure from mild academic aesthetics, notably through its use of strong colour contrasts. In his mural (...

(b Mexico, c. 1646; d Mexico, 1716).

Mexican painter. He is thought to have been the teacher of such painters as Juan Rodríguez Juarez and José de Ibarra. His many works for the cathedral of Mexico City include (for the sacristy) the large-scale Assumption and the Coronation of the Virgin (both 1689) and the Entry into Jerusalem (1691). For the same cathedral he also painted the Vision of the Apocalypse, other versions of the Assumption and the Coronation of the Virgin (destr. 1967), and the groups of angels for the retables of the Angel de la Guarda and Angel Custodio. Other religious paintings by Correa are in the chapel of the Rosary in the convent of Azcapotzalco, Mexico City, and Durango Cathedral, which includes works based on models by Rubens. Some interesting works by Correa in Spain include a series of ten canvases dedicated to the Life of the Virgin (Antequera, Mus. Mun.) and the ...

(b Povos, nr Lisbon, July 25, 1747; d Rio de Janeiro, March 21, 1819).

Portuguese architect, active also in Brazil. He studied in Italy under royal patronage, a pattern of artistic education established in Portugal at the beginning of the 18th century. He went first to Bologna, in 1769, becoming a member of the Accademia in 1775. He subsequently went to Rome, making an extensive tour of Italy before returning to Lisbon in 1779. In 1781 he was invited to run the school of architecture at the new Academia do Nu in Lisbon, founded under Mary I. He also became an honorary member of the Accademia di S Luca, Rome. In 1785 he completed the sanctuary of the Italian church of Nossa Senhora do Loreto, Lisbon, the rebuilding of which was started by Manuel Caetano de Sousa.

Costa e Silva’s first major work was the opera house, the Teatro S Carlos (1792–3), Lisbon, which was built in six months for a group of wealthy citizens anxious to follow the latest fashions in Italian opera. The design was consciously Neo-classical: the three-bay arcaded ...

Term used to refer to the Peruvian painters of various ethnic origins active in Cuzco from the 16th to the 19th century (see fig.). When Viceroy Toledo reached Cuzco in 1570, he commissioned a series of paintings (destr.) to be sent to Spain, which included depictions of the conquest and capture of Atahuallpa (d 1533) and portraits of the Inca rulers. These works were painted by Indians who had been taught by such Spanish masters as Loyola. From the beginning of Spanish colonization until the end of the 16th century, two currents existed in painting in Cuzco: that of the Spanish masters, influenced by Netherlandish and Late Gothic art; and the indigenous tradition. Both influences persisted simultaneously until Roman Mannerism reached Peru through the work of three Italian painters based in Lima: Mateo Pérez de Alesio, Bernardo Bitti, and Angelino Medoro. Bitti, a Jesuit, worked in Cuzco with, among others, two disciples of Medoro: the Indian ...

(b Paris, April 18, 1768; d Paris, June 28, 1848).

French painter and draughtsman, active in Brazil. When very young he accompanied his cousin, Jacques-Louis David, on a trip to Italy from which he returned in 1785. He then enrolled in the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris, initially following parallel studies in civil engineering but soon devoting himself to painting. Between 1798 and 1814 he entered several of the annual Paris Salons with historical or allegorical paintings, Neo-classical in both spirit and form, for instance Napoleon Decorating a Russian Soldier at Tilsit (1808; Versailles, Château). He also collaborated at this time with the architects Charles Percier and Pierre-François Fontaine on decorative works. With the fall of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte I, whom he greatly admired, he agreed to take part in the French artistic mission which left for Brazil in 1816. He stayed there longer than the rest of the group, returning to France only in ...

(b Málaga, c. 1700; d Guatemala, c. 1780).

Spanish military engineer, active in Mexico and Guatemala. In 1731–2 he arrived in New Spain with a royal commission. By 1733 he was director of works for the new Real Casa de la Moneda (Royal Mint; 1731–4) in Mexico City. He was involved with the fortifications (1731, 1733, 1738) at Veracruz and worked at the Sanctuary of the Villa de Guadalupe (1737–8), outside Mexico City. Díez Navarro also collaborated on the largest engineering project in New Spain, the draining of the Valle de México (1736–41). In 1740 he designed the church of S Brígida (destr.) in Mexico City, one of the only churches in Spanish America with an oval plan. In Mexico City in 1739 he became Maestro Mayor at the Palacio de los Virreyes and at the Reales Alcázares, as well as in the Cathedral. In 1741 he became Ingeniero Ordinario and shortly after was assigned to the Kingdom of Guatemala. One of his first tasks was to inspect the Caribbean coast, paying particular attention to its defences. He continued to be involved with coastal defences and made the first designs (...

Spanish family of architects, active in Mexico from 1690 to after 1750. It is assumed that José Durán, Miguel Custodio Durán, and Diego Durán Berruecos were related, although research to date has not produced any firm evidence. José Durán was responsible for the plan of the basilica of Guadalupe, which was built (1695–1709) by Pedro de Arrieta at the foot of the hill of Tepeyac, north of Mexico City. It is longitudinal in plan, with aisles, but centrally organized with a crossing dome equidistant from the sanctuary and the entrance. This dome presides over each elevation, framed by octagonal bell-towers at the corners. A possible stylistic source is the Basílica del Pilar (begun 1681), Saragossa, Spain.

Miguel Custodio Durán is associated with a series of works carried out in Mexico City. The most important of these is the church of S Juan de Dios (1729) on the north side of the Alameda Gardens. The main elevation is dished inwards in the manner of a ...