Art of Colonial Latin America”(London: Phaidon, 2005) by Gauvin Alexander Bailey, our main text, discusses the influence of Caravaggio on the Latin American colonial art canon. We begin with the Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio, an early Baroque reformist, and strict naturalist, who lived from 1571-1610 and had a major influence on the Latin American colonial art movement. In the Spanish American colonies, the primary art centers were located in Guatemala, Peru, and Mexico. Brazilian artistic tradition was guided more by Portugal, of course, although Caravaggio’s impact was still felt. Furthermore, in the Peruvian school of Cuzco, the European legacy was very strong, despite the presence of indigenous artistic influence.
Since much of the establishment of the American colonies to the south was largely by missionaries, and because the Roman Catholic Church was very important in these times, religious themes are prevalent throughout this period. Moreover, although Spain valued commercial conquests and trade, religious absolutism was so strong, that it remained almost a pure form in art, as seen throughout the early New World, though not without native and regional influences, either. However, although Caravaggio and others of his ilk painted religious figures, he particularly used realistic “men on the street” models in his art.
Furthermore, Caravaggio was renowned for injecting realism in his work, and for starting the movement known as tenebrism. Characteristic of the style that had a far-reaching impact, is his work, The Calling of Saint Matthew. Here he paints in a dim room that is partially also sunlit, creating shadows on his figures, for effect. He didn’t do colorful figures, and in this way, he rendered them more life-like. In this particular painting, this is the case, and also the element of recession is present, as characterized by Wolfflin. The lights and shadows, Jesus’ arm, and the figure of Levi all demonstrate movement. The tenebrism is felt here, as well, as his faces and hands are highlighted. Certainly, future Mexican colonial paintings displayed this stylistic trait.
American Hispanic and native artists painted in a Baroque style by the middle of the seventeenth century. Their works were replete with elongation and mass, unusual spatial relations, and subdued colorism. The artists stressed religious occurrences as being realistic. Again, this was largely due to the style of Caravaggio, who’d also popularized his approach with Spanish artists in Seville, and hence, the New World colonies. This was so because most of the Latin American pioneers embarked from Seville and were so exposed to its art.
In Mexico, Spanish immigrant Sebastián López de Arteaga produced Doubting Thomas in 1643. This depiction is certainly done in the Baroque style of realism. As the disciple Thomas places his finger in Jesus’ wound, the viewer can readily believe in the suffering and validity of Christ. Luminescence highlights the Lord’s wound. The protagonists have been rendered also, on a true-to-life scale. They are surrounded by some old men, who look like everyday people, indeed.
Yet another example of the Caravaggesque influence took place in Peru, where an anonymous artist worked, probably a painter at the Cuzco school, who was called the St. Jerome Master, named so because of the primary subject in his body of work. He did, at the inspiration of Italian engraving, several studies of St. Jerome. These specific studies portray an elderly man, wrinkles and all, who is spotlighted by illumination coming from outside his background. This gentleman certainly does appear real, as if he would step outside the picture frames. Like this particular artist, the indigenous painters of the times painted realistic figures whose expressions clearly showed what they were thinking and feeling. Everything about these subjects was real, including the look of their clothing.
Additionally, Caravaggio and others who came after him produced paintings depicting also sensuality and physicality, as well as the religious rapture. Contrast and ornamentation were employed to lend drama and action. Caravaggio’s Baroque departure from High Renaissance style to a more Mannerist-like model appears to have influenced those Spanish and Latin American artists who added more grandeur and flamboyance in their paintings.
Other painters of this influence are Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo, as noted in our main text. Diego Rivera (1886-1957) of Mexico painted murals. His paintings elevated the common working man and were done in bold color and rendered a gyrating, continuous sense of movement. His work usually told a particular story.
Rivera’s mural En el Arsenal portrays Tina Modotti on the right side of the picture, who is facing Julio Antonio Mella, hanging onto an ammo belt. Vittorio Vidale is right behind him. These were realistic in that they were real people, communist political leaders. The artist’s revolutionary beliefs and his anti-religious sentiment as well as his association with the Trotskyists were all expressed in his paintings.
His wife, Frieda Kahlo, used her lively and colorful art to render self-portraits of personal and collective pain. She certainly shows the European influences in her work, as they contain elements of surrealism, symbolism, and realism. Her pictures were often criticized as being grotesque and gruesome. Moreover, the artist was not shy about showing herself in such a light. She has painted herself with both a prominent mustache and unibrow.