The Paradise Garden Murals of Malinalco: Utopia and Empire in Sixteenth-Century Mexico - Softcover

Peterson, Jeanette Favrot

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0292769172 ISBN 13: 9780292769175

Publisher: University of Texas Press, 1993

Synopsis

The valley of Malinalco, Mexico, long renowned for its monolithic Aztec temples, is a microcosm of the historical changes that occurred in the centuries preceding and following the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century. In particular, the garden frescoes uncovered in 1974 at the Augustinian monastery of Malinalco document the collision of the European search for Utopia with the reality of colonial life.

In this study, Jeanette F. Peterson examines the murals within the dual heritage of pre-Hispanic and European muralism to reveal how the wall paintings promoted the political and religious agendas of the Spanish conquerors while preserving a record of pre-Columbian rituals and imagery. She finds that the utopian themes portrayed at Malinalco and other Augustinian monasteries were integrated into a religious and political ideology that, in part, camouflaged the harsh realities of colonial policies toward the native population.

That the murals were ultimately whitewashed at the end of the sixteenth century suggests that the "spiritual conquest" failed. Peterson argues that the incorporation of native features ultimately worked to undermine the orthodoxy of the Christian message. She places the murals' imagery within the pre-Columbian tlacuilo (scribe-painter) tradition, traces a "Sahagún connection" between the Malinalco muralists and the native artists working at the Franciscan school of Tlatelolco, and explores mural painting as an artistic response to acculturation.

The book is beautifully illustrated with 137 black-and-white figures, including photographs and line drawings. For everyone interested in the encounter between European and Native American cultures, it will be essential reading.

About this title

About the Author:

Jeannette Favrot Peterson is Professor in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Review:

". . . a significant contribution to the field . . . . it reveals the religious and political functions of painting as a part of the colonizing program of Spain." (François-Auguste de Montêquin, Professor and Chair of Art History, Virginia Commonwealth University)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0292769172
• ISBN 13: 9780292769175
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 246