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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 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 ...

[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 ...

(Domínguez )

(fl 1648–69).

Spanish architect, active in Peru. On 23 March 1648 he signed a contract with the Franciscans to build rib vaults over the transept and apse of the church of S Francisco in Cuzco. These vaults, which were built in brickwork, withstood the earthquake of 1650 and are evidence of the survival of Gothic building techniques in the New World. Another contract dated 16 August 1649 indicates that he was also responsible for the construction of similar rib vaulting in Cuzco Cathedral, begun to plans by Francisco Becerra in 1582. There he built 17 vaults over the nave and aisles of the cathedral, leading to the piers of the choir, all of brick masonry. Other major works by Chávez y Arellano in Cuzco included the construction of the chapel (1652) of the Jesuit School next to the church of La Compañía on the Plaza de Armas and the choir (1663) of the church of S Domingo, as well as private houses in the city of Cuzco. He also built the parish church (1663) in the nearby town of Paucartambo....

(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 ...

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 ...

[Chávez]

Mexican family of painters of Spanish origin. Baltasar de Echave Orio the elder (b Zumaya, c. 1558; d Mexico City, c. 1620) arrived in Mexico from Spain c. 1580. He worked with his father-in-law, Francisco de Zumaya (also known as Francisco de Ibía and Francisco de Gambo), on the principal retable and the S Miguel retable in Puebla Cathedral in 1590. His most important works date from the first two decades of the 17th century, during which he produced paintings for the retable of the Franciscan church of Santiago de Tlatelolco, Mexico City, of which the Visitation (Mexico City, Pin. Virreinal) and Porciuncula are certainly by him; the attribution of the Annunciation (Mexico City, Pin. Virreinal), Resurrection, and Stigmatization of St Francis (Guadalajara, Mus. Reg. Antropol. & Hist.), originally in the same church, is more cautious. For the church of La Profesa, Mexico City, he executed the Adoration of the Magi...

Guatemalan family of sculptors. Antonio Joseph de Gálvez was a master carpenter and mason. Few of his works are known. In 1720 he contracted with S Francisco, Santiago de Guatemala (now Antigua), to make the monumento (altar) used on Maundy Thursdays. He was in charge of the rebuilding of the monastic hospital of S Pedro in Santiago de Guatemala. His son Francisco Javier de Gálvez was also a master carver, whose surviving works show high ability. In 1747 Francisco Javier contracted to make the retable of the Crucifixion (untraced) in the Capilla de Los Reyes in Santiago de Guatemala Cathedral. In 1758 he was commissioned by the church of La Merced in Santiago de Guatemala to make two retables (Guatemala City, La Merced), one of Jesus of Nazareth and the other of Our Lady of Slavery. He also worked in the Real Palacio in the 1760s under the direction of ...

(b Villa de Guadalupe [now Guadalupe], c. 1727; d Mexico City, 1792).

Mexican architect. He is first documented as carrying out various repairs and inspecting the work of others in Guadalupe. By 1767 he had been appointed Maestro de Arquitectura by the municipality of Mexico City. Between 1770 and 1774, as Maestro Mayor, he worked in Mexico City on the estate of the Marqués of Oaxaca, the royal palace, the cathedral and the Inquisition Tribunal, the Santo Tribunal de la Fe. His most important ecclesiastical commission was the Capilla del Pocito (1779–91) in Guadalupe. Its unconventional plan is derived from Sebastiano Serlio’s interpretation of a Roman temple, with an oval central space (rather than Serlio’s circular chamber) surrounded by rectangular chapels and an octagonal sacristy; the building is approached by a small circular vestibule. The exterior shows this juxtaposition of spaces thanks to a large central dome with smaller domes set over the vestibule and the sacristy. The traditional polychromy of Mexican Baroque architecture is achieved here, as in his other work, through the use of white Chiluca stone, red ...

(b Cochabamba, c. 1665; d Potosí, c. 1730).

Bolivian painter. In 1693 he was working in Potosí, Bolivia, the Spanish empire’s largest city and most important centre of mining. He was highly esteemed and developed a characteristic style that emphasizes the facial features. His images of saints, mystics, and ascetics reflect the religious ideals of the Hispano-American Baroque. He signed many of his paintings and portrayed himself in some of them, for example the Last Judgement (1708; Potosí, S Lorenzo).

In his early works he depicted ascetic saints famed for their acts of charity, such as Fray Pedro de Alcántara and St Juan de Dios (both La Paz, Mus. N. A.), using grey tones. At the end of the 17th century he incorporated a wider range of colours into his paintings and began to work on a larger scale, as in the Last Judgement, which includes scenes of the Glory and Hell. This theme became popular throughout the Viceroyalty, with compositions of this type appearing in rural highland churches, such as those at Carabuco and Casquiaviri. Holguín later began his series of ...

(b San Miguel el Grande, now San Miguel de Allende, 1685; d Mexico City, Nov 21, 1756).

Mexican painter of African ancestry, listed as Spanish in the 1753 Mexico City census. He apprenticed with Juan Correa in Mexico City and, after 1716, was a journeyman in the workshop of Juan Rodríguez Juárez until 1728. Known in his lifetime as the “Murillo of New Spain,” his drawing style, subject matter, and use of color is equally influenced by the work of Peter Paul Rubens. A leading painter in New Spain throughout the 1730s, he produced portraits for at least three viceroys and numerous works for female convents, monasteries, colleges, and cathedrals. One of his earliest signed paintings, The Divine Spouse (1728), shows the reclining figure of Christ in a verdant garden inhabited by words and symbols taken from an emblem tradition. Appropriate for a convent setting and now in the Museo Nacional del Virreinato in Tepotzotlán, the intriguing composition prompted subsequent artists Miguel Herrera, Miguel Cabrera, José de Páez, and Andrés López to create their own versions. In 1731–1732 Ibarra produced four paintings for the cathedral in Puebla, confirming his mastery as an artist and fueling his prestige throughout the viceroyalty. Located on the choir’s outer wall, all four compositions show the apotheosis of a holy figure or religious devotion flanked by canons posing as saints (a portrait type known as ...

[Xuarez]

Mexican family of painters. Luis Juarez (b c. 1585; d Mexico City, c. 1638) painted in the Mannerist style of the Spanish painters settled in Mexico, such as Baltasar de Echave Orio and Alonso Vázquez, although his figures are softer than those of his teachers. He began working in the first decade of the 17th century. His signed St Teresa (Guadalajara, Mus. Guadalajara) dates from that time and his St Anthony of Padua and the Ascension (both Querétaro, Mus. Reg.) from 1610. In 1611 he was commissioned to make the triumphal arch for the reception of the Viceroy of New Spain, Fray García Guerra. During the 1620s he painted the retables in the church of Jesús María, Mexico City, and in S Agustín, Puebla. The finest of his numerous religious works are the Annunciation, the Agony in the Garden, the Visitation, the Archangel Michael, and St Raphael (all Mexico City, Pin. Virreinal); the ...

(b Quito, ?end of the 17th century; d Quito, May 31, 1773).

Ecuadorean wood-carver and painter. He was a pupil of José Olmos, and he set up his workshop in Quito facing the Franciscan monastery for which he worked. A versatile artist, he was also active as a gold- and silversmith, printer, and gunsmith. In 1736 Legarda carved his masterful Virgin of the Apocalypse or Winged Virgin of Quito (Quito, S Francisco), which was inspired by a painting by Miguel de Santiago. Legarda’s fine work reflects the mystical fervour of the legend it depicts. The twisting figure of the Virgin, trampling the head of a dragon underfoot, is balanced by her outspread arms and wings. Her face reflects the beauty of the mestiza, the mixed-race woman of Quito. Elsewhere in Quito, Legarda carved the Baroque altarpieces for the church of La Merced, the hospital and the churches of the Carmen Moderno and Cantuña, as well as the Crucifixion in this last church. In ...

(b Seville, 1610; d Mexico City, 1652).

Spanish painter. A pupil of Zurbarán, in 1640 he settled in Mexico City, where he went as part of the retinue of the Viceroy, the Marqués de Villena. In 1643 he formally requested to serve as a notary for the Holy Office of the Inquisition, following a family tradition in Seville. While his actual involvement with the dealings of the Inquisition was likely minimal, for the Holy Office he painted a series of portraits of former members, the portrait of Bishop Juan de Mañozca (all lost works), the portrait of Bishop Manso y Zúñiga (Mexico City Cathedral), and a Crucifixion (Mexico City, Museo de la Basilica de Guadalupe). López de Arteaga was active for only ten years in New Spain and produced a limited amount of work in Mexico, but influenced local painters, most notably José Juárez, Pedro Ramírez, and Baltasar Echave y Rioja. Although he is often credited with introducing the tenebrist style from Seville, his extant works in Mexico show a great degree of versatility, ranging from a deep chiaroscuro in dramatic subjects (e.g. the ...

(b 1617; d Lima, 1696).

Peruvian architect. He was a friar of the Dominican order in Lima and one of the most active architects in Peru during the second half of the 17th century. His earliest known work was a new plan (1643) for the cathedral at Trujillo, on the north coast. However, all his known works from 1659 were in Lima: that year he signed a contract to repair the water system in the main cloister of the convent of Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, and in 1663 the Sagrario was begun to his designs on the Plaza de Armas. Following the earthquake of 1678, Maroto took charge of the reconstruction of the transept of S Domingo and designed a new dome using quincha, a light construction of plastered reeds on a timber frame, an anti-seismic system first used in Peru in 1657 by Constantino de Vasconcelos. Maroto also rebuilt (1678–81...

(b Vergara, 1562; d Lima, 1635).

Spanish architect and sculptor active in Peru. He was trained as a sculptor by Cristóbal Velázquez (d 1616), a Mannerist of the school of Alonso Berruguete. He arrived in Lima c. 1599 and carved the life-sized reliefs of Christ and the Apostolate (1608) in cedar above the chests in the sacristy of the cathedral. They are imposing but do not strive for realism, betraying the influence of the Antique, particularly in the disposition and layout of the channelled folds and drapery and through references to Renaissance classicism. In 1614 he was appointed Maestro Mayor of Lima Cathedral, a post which he retained until his death. He is also known to have worked on the stone façade of S Lázaro. Following the earthquakes of 1606 and 1609, various architects were consulted on how to re-roof the cathedral. Wooden vaults were rejected, and Martínez de Arrona proposed Gothic ribbed vaults, executed in brick. This proposal was followed, and the church was completed by ...

(b Cuzco; fl 1664–80).

Peruvian architect and sculptor. He was the son of the architect Sebastián Martínez (d c. 1660), from whom he received his training. After his native city was destroyed in the earthquake of 1650, he rebuilt the façade and towers (which he may also have designed) of the Jesuit church of La Compañía, one of the finest in Peru, in 1664–8. His carving of the façade in the form of a retable in stone shows similarities to his work in wood for the retables inside this church. Martínez de Oviedo’s remarkable achievement as an architect and sculptor is seen in his designs for the cedarwood retable, pulpit, and façades of S Teresa, Cuzco, completed in 1676. Other works in Cuzco are in the churches of S Domingo (choir screen, 1665), S Sebastián near Cuzco (principal retable, 1679), and the Cathedral (side altar, 1667). His work in the cloister of the monastery of La Merced, Cuzco, on which he collaborated with his ...

(b Santiago de Guatemala [now Antigua], July 15, 1694; d Santiago de Guatemala, Dec 15, 1739).

Guatemalan painter. A son of the master painter Tomás de la Vega Merlo (b c. 1659; d 26 April 1749), he was the most important Guatemalan painter of his generation and the one by whom there are the most identified works. In 1730 he married Lucía de Gálvez, daughter of the master craftsman Antonio Joseph de Gálvez. In 1737 he began a series of eleven paintings of the Passion for the church of the Calvario (six, in situ; five, Antigua, Mus. Colon.). Two were finished by an unnamed pupil in 1740, and the general quality of the series is not high, perhaps because of poor retouching. In his painting of St Ignatius of Loyola (Antigua, Mus. Colon.), which is probably based on an engraving, the saint is depicted preaching, against a graceful background of angels in the upper part. In the Capuchin church in Guatemala City is his ...

[Sp.: ‘mixed’ or ‘hybrid’] (Baroque)

Term first used in its art-historical sense by Angel Guido (1925) to describe the fusion of Baroque architecture with indigenous art forms in South America and especially the Altiplano or highlands of Bolivia and Peru from the mid-17th century to the late 18th. Mestizo is characterized by massive Baroque structure with finely dressed stone detailing in exuberant flat patterns reminiscent of embroidery or wood-carving. Motifs incorporating indigenous fruits and animals were used on portals, retables, and decorative friezes; mythological characters play indigenous musical instruments; and Pre-Columbian decorative details help to fill every available space with dense ornamentation.

The most notable examples of the Mestizo style are to be found in the central Andes, at Arequipa in Peru, and at Potosí in Bolivia. In the region of Arequipa the use of a porous volcanic rock gave rise to a school of plane-surface carving that tended to stress chiaroscuro. The whole façade of the Jesuit church of ...