Altar Frontal Plaque with Birds (Placa de frontal de altar con aves)

Spanish Colonial Art
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Altar Frontal Plaque with Birds (Placa de frontal de altar con aves)

Viceroyalty of Peru, 18th century
Sculpture; plaques
Repoussé and chased silver
13 × 13 7/8 in. (33 × 35.2 cm)
Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund (M.2007.29.4)
Latin American Art
Not currently on public view

Provenance

Private collection, Argentina; private collection, United States, 1980s; Robert Simon Fine Arts, New York, 2006; LACMA, 2007.

Label

Elaborately decorated silver plaques adorned church altars across the viceroyalty of Peru and were shipped around the world, including to Jerusalem.

...

Elaborately decorated silver plaques adorned church altars across the viceroyalty of Peru and were shipped around the world, including to Jerusalem. These fragments were originally nailed to a wooden armature as part of a larger ensemble. The finely rendered bird of this plaque (see also M.2007.29.3) resting on a vine with a small cluster of grapes references the Eucharistic wine and hence the blood of Christ, a common motif for ecclesiastical objects, including altar frontals and tabernacles. The recurrence of such motifs, which were popular in Andean silver, woodwork, and textiles before the arrival of the Spaniards, also greatly concerned colonial authorities.


From exhibition Archive of the World, 2022 (for more information see the catalogue entry by Rachel Kaplan in the accompanying publication, cat. nos. 86–87, pp. 331–34)
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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.

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