Unidentified artist
Measuring Cups (Vasos para medir)circa 1750-1800

On view: David Geffen GalleriesSouth American Symbolic Universes

Set of eight graduated gilt-metal cups with repoussé foliate decoration, arranged in a row, with one large lidded silver vessel at right

Cylindrical wooden vessel with deeply carved scrolling foliage, floral rosettes, and interlacing vine motifs covering the entire exterior surface, with plain banded rim and base.

Artist or Maker: Unidentified artist
Title: Measuring Cups (Vasos para medir)
Place Made: Bolivia, possibly Moxos or Chiquitos
Date Made: circa 1750-1800
Medium: Carved tropical wood
Dimensions: Large to small (height × diameter): (1) 7 1/2 × 5 1/2 in. (19.1 × 14 cm); (2) 4 1/4 × 4 1/8 in. (10.8 × 10.5 cm); (3) 4 × 3 11/16 in. (10.2 × 9.4 cm); (4) 3 5/16 × 3 1/4 in. (8.4 × 8.3 cm); (5) 3 1/4 × 3 in. (8.3 × 7.6 cm); (6) 2 7/8 × 2 1/2 in. (7.3 × 6.4 cm); (7) 2 3/8 × 2 1/4 in. (6 × 5.7 cm); (8) 1 7/8 × 1 7/8 in. (4.8 × 4.8 cm); (9) 1 1/2 × 1 1/2 in. (3.8 × 3.8 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number: M.2020.84.1-.9
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: Nested within a larger lidded container, this set of nine cups—likely employed for measuring various substances—is profusely embellished with carved floral and bird motifs. Their format recalls the Andean metal cups known as aquillas and those made of wood known as keros, which were important ceremonial vessels for drinking chicha (corn beer) in ancient and colonial times.

Indigenous artists carved exquisite wood objects that drew simultaneously on local and foreign decorative motifs and employed a variety of tropical woods. They labored in missions (reducciones) established by Jesuit priests, who first arrived in Moxos and Chiquitos (in present-day Bolivia) in the late 1600s. By the 1700s, the Jesuits had established a chain of largely self-sustaining missions, where different Indigenous groups were relocated for the purpose of evangelization and work in different types of trades.

Ilona Katzew

2024
Provenance: Susana Montiel de Colmenares, London, c. 1980s; Pedro Aguiar-Branco, Portugal and France, 2001; AR-PAB gallery (Álvaro Roquette and Pedro AguiarBranco), Paris; Eguiguren Arte de Hispanoamérica (Javier Eguiguren), 2019; LACMA, 2019.
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 artist
Measuring Cups (Vasos para medir)circa 1750-1800

On view: David Geffen GalleriesSouth American Symbolic Universes

Artist or Maker: Unidentified artist
Title: Measuring Cups (Vasos para medir)
Place Made: Bolivia, possibly Moxos or Chiquitos
Date Made: circa 1750-1800
Medium: Carved tropical wood
Dimensions: Large to small (height × diameter): (1) 7 1/2 × 5 1/2 in. (19.1 × 14 cm); (2) 4 1/4 × 4 1/8 in. (10.8 × 10.5 cm); (3) 4 × 3 11/16 in. (10.2 × 9.4 cm); (4) 3 5/16 × 3 1/4 in. (8.4 × 8.3 cm); (5) 3 1/4 × 3 in. (8.3 × 7.6 cm); (6) 2 7/8 × 2 1/2 in. (7.3 × 6.4 cm); (7) 2 3/8 × 2 1/4 in. (6 × 5.7 cm); (8) 1 7/8 × 1 7/8 in. (4.8 × 4.8 cm); (9) 1 1/2 × 1 1/2 in. (3.8 × 3.8 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number: M.2020.84.1-.9
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: Nested within a larger lidded container, this set of nine cups—likely employed for measuring various substances—is profusely embellished with carved floral and bird motifs. Their format recalls the Andean metal cups known as aquillas and those made of wood known as keros, which were important ceremonial vessels for drinking chicha (corn beer) in ancient and colonial times.

Indigenous artists carved exquisite wood objects that drew simultaneously on local and foreign decorative motifs and employed a variety of tropical woods. They labored in missions (reducciones) established by Jesuit priests, who first arrived in Moxos and Chiquitos (in present-day Bolivia) in the late 1600s. By the 1700s, the Jesuits had established a chain of largely self-sustaining missions, where different Indigenous groups were relocated for the purpose of evangelization and work in different types of trades.

Ilona Katzew

2024
Provenance: Susana Montiel de Colmenares, London, c. 1980s; Pedro Aguiar-Branco, Portugal and France, 2001; AR-PAB gallery (Álvaro Roquette and Pedro AguiarBranco), Paris; Eguiguren Arte de Hispanoamérica (Javier Eguiguren), 2019; LACMA, 2019.
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