Styling the elite: issues of the Baroque, Buen Gusto, and Creole identity in late 18th-century Novohispanic portraiture

Abstract

Secular portraiture flourished during the eighteenth century in New Spain. These works’ stylistic tenets were grounded in an established Baroque visual program developed over centuries in the viceroyalty. At the close of the century, the Spanish crown founded the Art Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City. From its foundation in 1781 through to the nineteenth century, the Academy served as a symbol of Neoclassicism. The 1790s in New Spain saw a period of transition in which lasting Baroque styles and new, Neoclassical artistic discourses coming from Spain coexisted. Both modes of artmaking were deeply rooted in colonial notions of race, class, and taste. By considering the position of the artist in the midst of these tensions, I argue that Novohispanic artists such as Andrés López and Ignacio María Barreda were able to navigate between Neoclassical and Baroque styles depending on the demands of context, allowing them to move purposefully through elite Academic and Creole social spaces. Creole patrons displayed a desire to hold on to Baroque forms because of their ability to speak uniquely to Novohispanic anxieties surrounding documentation, social standing, and racial status. This ability to consciously navigate between styles indicates a sense of agency for both artist and patron.