Altar Cross (Cruz de altar)

Spanish Colonial Art
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Altar Cross (Cruz de altar)

Guatemala, Antigua, circa 1560
Sculpture
Silver gilt, cast and chased
15 1/2 × 7 in. (39.4 × 17.8 cm)
Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund, the Decorative Arts Deaccession Fund, and Jan and Frederick R. Mayer (M.2006.117a-b)
Latin American Art
Not currently on public view

Provenance

Paul d’Almeida, Europe, 20th century; by inheritance to his grandchild, Europe; Sotheby’s, London, July 7, 2006, lot 56; LACMA, 2006.

Label

This portable altar cross from Guatemala is associated with the Dominicans, one of the three religious orders that evangelized the vast territory of Mesoamerica in the sixteenth century.

...

This portable altar cross from Guatemala is associated with the Dominicans, one of the three religious orders that evangelized the vast territory of Mesoamerica in the sixteenth century. Their conventual churches were appointed with prescribed silver liturgical objects, primarily created by artists from Spain. This profusely ornamented cross, depicting saints associated with the order and traditional biblical subjects, would have been placed on the altar during Mass.


From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entry by Cristina Esteras Martín in the accompanying publication, cat. no. 14, pp. 96–99)
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Bibliography

  • Katzew, Ilona, ed. Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800: Highlights from LACMA’s Collection. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books/D.A.P., 2022.
  • Katzew, Ilona, ed. Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800: Highlights from LACMA’s Collection. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books/D.A.P., 2022.
  • Esteras, Cristina. “De México y Guatemala: Nuevas obras para la historia de su platería (siglos XVI y XVII).” In El Dorado: Estudios sobre la plata iberoamericana, siglos XVI–XIX, editd by Jesús Paniagua Pérez, Nuria Salazar Simarro, and Moisés Gámez. 201–17. León, Spain: Universidad de León; Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 2012.
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Exhibition history

  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800 Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
  • Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800 Nashville, TN, Frist Art Museum, October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024