Peruvian or Argentine Silver Missal Stand or Lectern in the Mestizo Baroque Style
$15,000.00
This late 18th or early 19th Peruvian or Argentine ecclesiastic missal stand would have been used by a church in the colonial period executed in the Mestizo Baroque style. Every surface is decorated with intricate repousse design containing floral Incan and classic Christian Catholic iconography. Every surface including the back of this piece is richly decorated with the Catholic monstrance, kantuta and coca flowers, and the Incan sunflower. A number of winged angels are hidden in the corners. All handmade. Lots of hammer marks. Nails are solid silver. Some small insect holes in wood (not apparently active). Unmarked for maker. 9.5" x 11.5" x 12.5". Too heavy for my scale (10-15 pounds+).
"Mestizo baroque, in which the entire surface of an object or an architectural detail was intricately worked and completely filled, appealed to both sophisticated Europeans and the unlettered indigenous masses. It was exuberant and elaborate, mysterious and complex, lavish and weighty. Although some clerics complained bitterly about the artisans’ use of idolatrous pagan elements, many Europeans were oblivious to the special meaning that innocuous-seeming design details might hold for Andean Indians. The bell-shaped kantuta flower, for example, which appears everywhere in colonial-period crafts, symbolizes submission and has a special place in ancient Peruvian funeral customs, according to Alain Gheerbrant".
"Without a doubt, the most impressive examples of Viceregal Peruvian artistry in silver are to be found in the region’s churches, convents, and chapels, where the surfaces of altars, altar retables, and tabernacles have been completely worked in the intricate, gleaming high relief that typifies the mestizo baroque style. These astonishing displays of floral and vegetal tracery, putti (often with Indian faces), animals, birds, people, and sacred scenes were meant to captivate and awe the beholder, whether a sophisticated Spanish noble or a barefoot Indian peasant." [Source: Martha Egan, Ganoskin.com]
A somewhat similar example in the 1974 book Argenteria del Rio de la Plata.
Check out some of my other sterling silver here:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/neurorocker?section_id=6783258
Or just browse around the shop!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/neurorocker
"Mestizo baroque, in which the entire surface of an object or an architectural detail was intricately worked and completely filled, appealed to both sophisticated Europeans and the unlettered indigenous masses. It was exuberant and elaborate, mysterious and complex, lavish and weighty. Although some clerics complained bitterly about the artisans’ use of idolatrous pagan elements, many Europeans were oblivious to the special meaning that innocuous-seeming design details might hold for Andean Indians. The bell-shaped kantuta flower, for example, which appears everywhere in colonial-period crafts, symbolizes submission and has a special place in ancient Peruvian funeral customs, according to Alain Gheerbrant".
"Without a doubt, the most impressive examples of Viceregal Peruvian artistry in silver are to be found in the region’s churches, convents, and chapels, where the surfaces of altars, altar retables, and tabernacles have been completely worked in the intricate, gleaming high relief that typifies the mestizo baroque style. These astonishing displays of floral and vegetal tracery, putti (often with Indian faces), animals, birds, people, and sacred scenes were meant to captivate and awe the beholder, whether a sophisticated Spanish noble or a barefoot Indian peasant." [Source: Martha Egan, Ganoskin.com]
A somewhat similar example in the 1974 book Argenteria del Rio de la Plata.
Check out some of my other sterling silver here:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/neurorocker?section_id=6783258
Or just browse around the shop!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/neurorocker