Unidentified artists
Cabinet with Image of Saint John the Baptist (Contador con imagen de san Juan Bautista)18th century

Not on view

Large decorative wood cabinet with chamfered corners, covered in dense ivory arabesque inlay on a reddish-brown ground, with gilded columns and a small painted devotional panel at center

Ornate ebonized wood frame with tortoiseshell and ivory or bone inlay in scrolling floral and geometric patterns, enclosing a small oil painting of a bearded man in a white tunic and red robe, holding a staff topped with a cross and a book or vessel.

Cabinet door detail with tortoiseshell veneer and dense ivory or bone inlay in scrolling foliate and floral patterns, centered on a large flower medallion with symmetrical arabesques and bordered by a continuous vine motif.

Detail of a cabinet door with tortoiseshell veneer and dense ivory or bone inlay forming interlacing scrollwork, stylized floral rosettes, and foliate arabesques within nested rectangular borders; gilt carved columns visible at sides.

Decorative cabinet front with tortoiseshell veneer and dense ivory or bone inlaid foliate scrollwork covering multiple small drawers with keyhole escutcheons; central arched niche contains a small painted panel portrait of a haloed male figure in blue and red robes holding a cross.

Artist or Maker: Unidentified artists
Title: Cabinet with Image of Saint John the Baptist (Contador con imagen de san Juan Bautista)
Place Made: Guatemala (for export market, possibly Peru)
Date Made: 18th century
Medium: Wood, inlaid with tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, and ivory; oil painting on tin; glass; brass; copper fittings; and iron hinges
Dimensions: 32 × 69 3/4 × 17 in. (81.3 × 177.2 × 43.2 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Ronald A. Belkin, Long Beach, California
Accession Number: M.2013.130.1
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: This cabinet, with its intricate shell-inlay designs, would have been displayed on a matching bufete (stand) with a second bureau stacked on top, forming a pyramidal ensemble. Modeled after seventeenth-century German, Flemish, and Iberian prototypes, the works were usually crowned with a valuable object or sculpture (see M.2024.98a–c). These “towers of riches” could also incorporate religious images under glass, asserting the piety of their owners. This example contains a central niche enlivened with a painting of Saint John the Baptist.

Because of their materials and their designs that vaguely resemble Asian decorative arts, these works have been difficult to categorize. Scholars have suggested that they were imported aboard the famous Spanish trading ships—known as the Manila Galleons—that traveled annually between the Philippines and Mexico. But archival and material documentation suggests that such works originated in Guatemala, where mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell were harvested locally and considered prized commodities. Many items made of these materials were exported to Mexico and Peru. The designs draw on a range of European and Asian sources, which local artists creatively reinterpreted.

Ilona Katzew

2024
Provenance: Metropolitan Fine Art and Antiques, New York; R. M. Barokh Inc. Antiques, Los Angeles, 2002; Ronald A. Belkin, Long Beach, California, 2002; LACMA, 2013.
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. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024

Related Exhibitions

Unidentified artists
Cabinet with Image of Saint John the Baptist (Contador con imagen de san Juan Bautista)18th century

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Unidentified artists
Title: Cabinet with Image of Saint John the Baptist (Contador con imagen de san Juan Bautista)
Place Made: Guatemala (for export market, possibly Peru)
Date Made: 18th century
Medium: Wood, inlaid with tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, and ivory; oil painting on tin; glass; brass; copper fittings; and iron hinges
Dimensions: 32 × 69 3/4 × 17 in. (81.3 × 177.2 × 43.2 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Ronald A. Belkin, Long Beach, California
Accession Number: M.2013.130.1
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: This cabinet, with its intricate shell-inlay designs, would have been displayed on a matching bufete (stand) with a second bureau stacked on top, forming a pyramidal ensemble. Modeled after seventeenth-century German, Flemish, and Iberian prototypes, the works were usually crowned with a valuable object or sculpture (see M.2024.98a–c). These “towers of riches” could also incorporate religious images under glass, asserting the piety of their owners. This example contains a central niche enlivened with a painting of Saint John the Baptist.

Because of their materials and their designs that vaguely resemble Asian decorative arts, these works have been difficult to categorize. Scholars have suggested that they were imported aboard the famous Spanish trading ships—known as the Manila Galleons—that traveled annually between the Philippines and Mexico. But archival and material documentation suggests that such works originated in Guatemala, where mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell were harvested locally and considered prized commodities. Many items made of these materials were exported to Mexico and Peru. The designs draw on a range of European and Asian sources, which local artists creatively reinterpreted.

Ilona Katzew

2024
Provenance: Metropolitan Fine Art and Antiques, New York; R. M. Barokh Inc. Antiques, Los Angeles, 2002; Ronald A. Belkin, Long Beach, California, 2002; LACMA, 2013.
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. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024