- Title
- Altar Frontal Plaque with Birds (Placa de frontal de altar con aves)
- Date Made
- 18th century
- Medium
- Repoussé and chased silver
- Dimensions
- 13 5/8 × 13 7/8 in. (34.6 × 35.2 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2007.29.3
- Collecting Area
- Latin American Art
- Curatorial Notes
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 https://collections.lacma.org/node/213397" >M.2007.29.4) 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)
- Provenance
Private collection, Argentina; private collection, United States, 1980s; Robert Simon Fine Arts, New York, 2006; LACMA, 2007.
- Selected 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.
- Selected Exhibition History
- Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
- Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
- Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
- Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
- Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024
- Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024
