The Academy of San Carlos and Mexican Art History

The first substantial Mexican colonial art historiography in English, this book examines the origin of the study of colonial art in Mexico as a symptom of the development of modern museum practice in mid-nineteenth-century Mexico City. Also an intellectual history, this study recognizes the role of nationalism in the initiation of art historical practice in what is understood today more broadly as Latin America. Although there has been a steady stream of scholarship produced about the subject, beginning in Mexico and increasingly in the United States, what is variably known as viceregal or colonial Mexican, Spanish colonial, and colonial Latin American art continues to be underplayed or overlooked by most art historians and is thus marginal in the field of art history. Ray Hernández-Durán redresses that omission, presenting a detailed examination of the origin of the study of colonial art in Mexico. Drawing upon archival research, this volume touches upon the role of politics on the formation of the first gallery of Mexican painting in the Academy of San Carlos and the first comprehensive historical treatment of the material in the form of a dialogue. Furthermore, this study promotes further research in colonial art historiography and underlines the pivotal role that the Indo-Hispanic Americas played in the emergence of early modernity and the process of globalization.

Ray Hernández-Durán completed his B.A. and B.F.A. at the University of Texas at Austin, his M.A. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. He teaches the history of colonial Ibero-American arts and architecture at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Contents: Chapter One A Historiography of Colonial Art in Mexico: Problems, Context, and Developments Chapter Two Locating a Colonial Past in the Nation's Memory: The Politics of Making History Chapter Three The Academy of San Carlos and the Old Mexican School: Collecting and Displaying Colonial Painting Chapter Four Writing a History of Art in Mexico: From Spectacular Verses to Rational Texts Chapter Five Concluding Remarks: Contested Ground